I've seen a couple of references to the "Just donate a dollar to breast cancer charities."

I would have preferred that more money went to the charities but I see the pink bits as something to help awareness more than a source of revenue. The fact is that the pink bits and all of the other various pink merchandise have done a great job at bringing breast cancer awareness to the forefront. In my opinion, they may have been a little too successful to the detriment of the various other causes.

The fact is that charities, like all other businesses, have to compete for a limited amount of dollars and mindshare. Without mindshare, people won't think to donate so anything that can be done to remind people of a particular cause will benefit it.

In essence the pink Chris King merchandise is just one little cog in this big campaign to keep people aware of the cause. The fact is, at least here in Canada, if you walk into any department store you will find pink kitchen appliances, utensils, t-shirts, hats, hairbrushes, etc. that are obviously targeted at women. The Chris King bits bring this to the attention of athletes and men. Speedgoat even has a yearly raffle raffling out a high end bike made up of a lot of pink bits with all proceeds going to breast cancer charities.

Anyway, to close off I'll provide some statistics.
- One in nine women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime and one in 27 will die from it.
- One in eight men will develop prostate cancer in his lifetime and one in 27 will die from it.