Is The NFL’s Pink Campaign Really Just A Scam?

I grew up in the 1960’s less than 10 miles from Shea Stadium, home of the New York Jets and the biggest star in all of sports at the time: Joe Namath.

I was a crazy sports fan as a kid, and I covered the walls of my bedroom with dozens of sports pennants and posters. My favorite poster of all was one of Joe Namath as he dropped back to pass, wearing his stylish white cleats.

Up until then, every single college and pro football player in history had worn black shoes. But Namath seized every opportunity to be a trend-setting renegade, both on the field and off.

Clearly, “Broadway Joe” was a shining example of Peter Drucker’s famous declaration:

“The business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.”

But I digress…

Nowadays, of course, one simple pair of white cleats would hardly stand out on an NFL field, especially for the past five seasons during the “National Breast Cancer Awareness Month” of October, when hundreds of players all over the league can be seen wearing pink shoes – to go along with pink gloves, wristbands, towels and more.

Then there are the pink referee flags, pink goalpost pads, pink cheerleader pom poms and even pink ribbons on the official game balls – not to mention over 1,000 “pink” items in the NFL’s online store, including hats, shirts, jerseys, blankets, sweatshirts, jewelry and more.

It’s all a part of the NFL’s “A Crucial Catch” campaign to raise awareness and money in the fight against breast cancer.

Clearly, they have the “raising awareness” part of the equation mastered. Who isn’t “aware” that there’s a disease called breast cancer?

So what about the “raising money” part?

Unfortunately, that’s a different story.

Last week, a report by Business Insider detailed how only 8.01% of all “pink” revenues generated by the NFL actually goes towards cancer research.

Which, I guess, is a huge improvement over last year, when the same source reported: “When we contacted the NFL’s online shop for clarification, we were told 5% of the sales are being donated to the American Cancer Society.”

According to that article, only $3.54 of every $100 worth of NFL “pink” merchandise sold went to the American Cancer Society, while the NFL kept up to $45 of it.

And that leads many people to the conclusion that the NFL is wrongly profiting off of their whole “Breast Cancer Awareness” program, instead of just doing a good deed.

On the other hand, there’s the argument that whatever little money the American Cancer Society is getting from the NFL’s program, it’s better than nothing and they should just be grateful and not ask questions.

Here are my thoughts…

I’m okay with whatever percentage of the NFL’s “pink” sales goes to the charity – as long as that fact is clearly communicated to the people who purchase the merchandise. (Although if the NFL disclosed how little of the money actually goes to charity, it’s extremely likely that their “pink” sales would plummet faster than a quarterback getting sacked by a 350-pound lineman.)

Here’s the lesson for all entrepreneurs…

It is certainly a winning strategy to tie your business to a charity. You and your clients both feel great because you’re helping a worthy cause, and you benefit financially because you attract more clients.

But…

If you are at all shifty about how much of your “proceeds” go to charity, and/or you donate only an insultingly miniscule percentage of sales to charity, then your strategy is likely to backfire and result in an increase of bad will, distrust and overall negative feelings towards your business – which will, of course, lead to a decrease in revenue and profit.

Here’s how to do it right…

I asked business owners to donate goods and services for a charity auction at my Chicago Recession Buster seminar in January 2011, and was overjoyed that as a result we were able to contribute over $14,000 to Junior Achievement Of Chicago to help our next generation of entrepreneurs. Neither I nor any of the donors kept one single penny of any of the winning auction bids.

In my opinion, THAT’s how you support a charity properly.

Or you could do it the NFL’s way, and open yourself up the possibility of seeing negative articles about your business such as “The Breast Cancer Charity Scam” and “The Conflicting Truth About The NFL’s Pink Campaign,” among others, including all of the negative comments they’ve inspired.

Speaking of comments, I’d love to read yours below.

Tell me what you think: Do you agree with me about how disgusting and greedy the NFL is being in this case, or do you think I’m off-base?