“But it’s raising awareness of breast cancer!!”
Yeah, right. It’s reaching all those people that haven’t seen and heard all the public awareness ads, heard about and/or participated in all the races, and/or seen all the pink ribbons.
Of course, all those ask for time, money or effort, and facebooking is sooo much easier.
Are you being intentionally obtuse or are you really not understanding?
I admit I rolled my eyes a bit at the supposed breast cancer awareness stance of the forward, but frankly, I think the main point of it was just a silly game- not one with winners or losers (this isn’t the esteemed World of Warcraft or D&D), but just a silly pastime (which is another perfectly acceptable definition of “game”)
Yup, you can’t be silly about things. We must only bow our heads and show the greatest of reverence for serious matters. God knows, I’ve never heard a woman with breast cancer crack a joke about her situation. In fact, I just see them screaming and crying about all those silly, unserious walks for cancer awareness- because really, what the fuck is walking and wearing pink going to do?
Exactly.
Some of us a pissed off because they are linking their silly little game to a very real problem in a dispicable effort to make their silly little game popular.
Raise funds for this problem.
Lighten up, Francis! 
I’d venture to guess that yellow and brown would be popular color choices to post among men.
Oh dear. Well, on behalf of Facebook, I extend our sincerest apologies. Better?
The sincerity is just dripping here.
I have a very real problem with jerks that try to tie their products to popular charitable causes without donating anything of worth to those causes. Nobody here is upset about the stupid game-they are angry that this stupid game is trying to increase hits through deceptive means.
Well, I work at the National Cancer Institute and I’m inclined to agree.
If I were looking to spend my cancer-prevention dollars, I’d fund a campaign to get the whole damn nation, men included, vaccinated for HPV.
I agree. But I believe that cancer is in fact a serious, life or death matter. If you want to do something worthwhile, advocate for more funding for research, or organize hair drives for wigs, or knit comfy sweaters, or do one of those fundraising walks, or anything like that - great. The implication that changing your Facebook status has any significance whatsoever on a very real problem is almost offensively stupid, and leads to a very harmful attitude (“I’d love to do something to help, so I’ll change my Facebook status and we’re good.”)
The game is not a thing it’s a suggestion for an action that can’t get “hits.” There isn’t any product, link, or minigame to participate in. People just post one phrase on their facebook status. That’s all.
But why is it the default assumption that this is the case? Looking at my friends feed, I’d say a solid 75% of the girls that posted their bra color have donated either time or money to BCA- and these are just the ones that I’ve personally been witness to. Sure, my dumb as shit 13 year old cousin posted, “POLKA DOTS!!! ;););)” and I can say with a fairly high degree of certainty that she hasn’t given any money to a charity, but hey- she at least heard a little something about breast cancer and now it can be in the back of her mind.
By changing your status to “N/A since my mastectomy, you fucking ASSHOLES.”
All the public service ads, races and pink ribbons slipped by her without notice, but suddenly this “game” has raised her awareness?
This is truely an amazing world we live in.
You’re being silly, Czarcasm. I’m not prepared to say that this whole thing has done much to advance the state of women’s health, but which would you pay more attention to, something that said “Pay attention to this” or something that was a game that your friends were playing, and that you had to get initiated, sort of, to participate in? Which would more easily get past your who fucking cares filters?
It’s viral marketing. There are valid criticisms to be made about some of the particulars here, as others have mentioned, but it’s stupid to say that a young girl wouldn’t be more likely to tune in to this thing than to a PSA or a ribbon. And you’re a liar if you’re saying that you genuinely believe that the color thing hasn’t made breast cancer an active thought in more people’s minds than a ribbon, no matter what you think the effect will be.
Several of my friends used the game as a jumping off point to post links to several resources where you could sign up to donate money or time. I’m willing to bet they weren’t the only ones.
One of my friends reported that his friends transformed it into posting one’s favorite sexual position. They seemed to have missed the point.
I apologize for saying this game didn’t serve a worthy purpose.
On the other hand, this is a really effective way to remind women to touch their tits. Some study recently showed BSEs aren’t necessarily any more effective than a woman who just regularly touches herself and gets familiar with her breasts.
I didn’t donate any money as a result of this. I did remember to do a quick check. Maybe one person did a quick check and then made an appointment - and caught a lump at stage I or II rather than stage IV.
You’re conveniently ignoring a instance of when it did.