General Cycling Discussion - Lets all buy a little yellow wristband!

So looks like there's a lot of talk about this Lance/Nike "Let's all buy a yellow wristband and cure cancer" deal. What does everyone think about this? Do you need a 'celebrity' and a corporation with suspect labour practices to convince you who you should donate to? Or are all charities equal?

A penny for your thoughts....and if we can.....how about we limit this to adult, educated discussion? If you think it's one big joke, great; if you're a bleeding heart, great too - but let's avoid the personal attacks on this one if we can :rolleyes:

Debate on......

So looks like there's a lot of talk about this Lance/Nike "Let's all buy a yellow wristband and cure cancer" deal. What does everyone think about this? Do you need a 'celebrity' and a corporation with suspect labour practices to convince you who you should donate to? Or are all charities equal?



I tend not to give to charity, but just bought ten of the liveSTRONG bands after clicking on a link from the excellent new Nike Lance commercial.

I don't actually need a 'celebrity' and a corporation with suspect labour practices to convince me, but I suppose being human, it helps, whether I like it or not.

Reading Lances first book helped too. I figure if there's hope for one brash texan to change his ways, there's hope for a certain other one... :)

Oh and all charities are most definitely not equal. ;)

So looks like there's a lot of talk about this Lance/Nike "Let's all buy a yellow wristband and cure cancer" deal. What does everyone think about this? Do you need a 'celebrity' and a corporation with suspect labour practices to convince you who you should donate to?

I don't, but it appears as though quite a few people do. I guess charties asking for donations is like the sellers of any other product or services asking for people to part with their money. Whether it's a smart thing to do or not, people look upon celebrities as role models. Personally I never have, as I believe celebrities (regardless of who they are) have imperfections like the rest of us. However, it seems there aren't many people out there who think like I do.

I think of it as more a show of support and awareness than a donation (though the donation helps). My GFs sister just finished her treatment (chemo and radiation) for Hodgekins Lymphoma.. She wanted to do something to help her sister out but being over 2000 miles away, it was somewhat hard. She is a runner, so she decided to do a team in training marathon, and raised over $8500 for cancer research. But, she said one of the biggest impacts she thinks she made, was from training every day, with a wrist-band on with her sisters name on it. People would ask about it, and she would tell her sister's story, and usually a short explanation of what Hodgekins is. Definitely raised the awareness in her group of runner friends, and even a few strangers.. I could see the yellow bands doing the same.. there are a lot of people out there who aren't aware as they should be, and may ask questions if they see the bands.. :shrug:

Like it or not, celebrities can gain a great deal of attention. I think it is great that Lance is channeling that attention towards a very good cause, rather than being like most celebrities who do nothing but try to use it for their own "status"/benefit. He is not telling you where to donate, or how to donate, but is garnering some attention for his foundation, and the awareness of cancer in general. One last point- a lot of times, people think they have to donate a huge sum of money to contribute to a foundation like the LAF. This is definitely not the case, but these wrist bands allow people to donate with a much smaller sum of money, without feeling like they are giving an insulting or low donation amount.