Charity Bands
Posted on Sunday, July 24th, 2005 at 16:40.
Lance Armstrong will forever be remembered for one thing: starting a rubber wristband craze. (Yeah, there is that whole seven straight victories of the Tour de France thing, but eww… France.) The popularity of Lance’s noble Live Strong campaign spawned a gang of uninspired imposters. Apparently all the non-profits got together one night for a closed-door meeting where they drew straws to pick a color and slogan to represent them in wristband form.
Americans now can buy their symbolic support for nearly every cause they will spend a buck on; from troops to breast cancer, HIV to gay pride, poverty to hating President Bush.
I am not criticizing awareness on these issues (save maybe the last one). I have even purchased them for people I love. My issue is with the people who wear so many wristbands that they wear an entire Pantone palette of colors as an armband. At this point, the wristbands become more of a fashion accessory than a meaningful statement of support.
Not until this weekend did I notice a similar problem on cars. I do not drive in Boston and I haven’t owned a car in four years, so excuse me if this is painfully obvious.
Several times on I-84, I noticed car trunks with color magnetic ribbons arranged methodically to cover every inch of available space. Even better are the old junkers with the magnetic ribbons faded beyond any recognition of color or supporting organization.
More troubling than overzealous application of these charitable tokens is the commercialization of them. Walk into any 7-Eleven convenience store and you’ll be able to purchase a rubber wristband with a variety of stupid statements or a colored magnetic ribbon whose profits support anyone but a worthwhile cause.
Remember, these charitable tokens are not Pokemon. You don’t have to collect them all. There is much to be said for those who donate to a worthwhile cause without seeking praise, even in the form of trendiness. For the wristbands and ribbon magnets not supporting a cause without an attached non-profit , moderation is key. Any more than three and you’re just a trend-whore.
It’s charity American style! Kinda like those ribbon sticker thingies plastered all over the backs of people’s cars. :-)
-dl
What really gets me about those car ribbon magnets is that people never put them on right… The ribbon is not supposed to go sideways.
Also there is a gas station chain where I live that is advertising a rainbow-colored wristband that is supposed to be multi-purpose, so you only have to wear one now–theirs.
Just wanted to say I completely agree with what you wrote about this subject.
I have been wearing the LiveStrong bracelet ever since last summer. I wear it b/c of the cause it supports, not b/c it is “what’s in”. It bothers me though now, seeing everyone else wearing them just to be cool…b/c I don’t want people to think I just wanted to be like everyone else. At times I want to remove as not to be associated with others who wear it w/o knowing or caring about it’s real reason…
I saw a Chevy SUV today with the incorrectly horizontal ribbon saying “God Bless the USA” and then on the opposite side of the rear end was… a blank horizontal ribbon. The SUV was white, and the ribbon was white, so it only partially was visible. Apparently, it had seen too many automatic carwashes. And it was worth a laugh. Kind of like a blank check for the latest ribbon look.
Perhaps if you’re a really good boy I’ll give you one of the wine colored limited edition Progressive bands ;-)