Over the years it seems like Rose Kushner’s strife for widespread information on breast cancer treatment options has developed into a lucrative businesses selling items like pink ribbon bumper stickers and mugs. Which is not to say is entirely a bad thing. The commercialization of breast cancer seems like a strange thing, yet it also seems to be effective in promoting the disease in terms of funding and individual awareness.
One of the first things that stands out to me when accessing Susan G. Komen’s for the Cure website is the well tailored structure of the site. In the background a touching picture makes you want to press the shopkomen.com button placed strategically first on the tool bar. It’s the sweetness of children mixed in with the feel of a loving mother that this site really takes advantage of. In this sense, the Breast Cancer Action website is the opposite. Instead, the sites layout directs you to a list on the side with options such a ‘take action’ and ‘ volunteer’. This site takes a much more individualistic and proactive approach with an abundance of information on how you, the visitor of the site, can do the most to help. This approach of providing a variety of options for the viewer to be an active participant instead of a consumer appeals the most to me. I also noticed bcaction.org to have a large blog page with an assortment of information ranging from mammograms and early detection to environmental chemicals as possible cancer agents. Over all, the spread of information and proactive nature of Breast Cancer Action brings about a more practical feel than Komen’s over commercialized and narrowed view on a multifaceted issue.
Hello! I also did notice the different takes on breast cancer on these two websites but it didn’t occur to me as Breast Cancer Action as being more practical and Komen’s website being more commercialized. I think they are both useful, but probably for different types of women and maybe for people in different stages of breast cancer, whether having just discovered it, or became a survivor. I feel that Komen’s website gives a feeling of emotional support and is quite soothing to navigate. It gives a feeling of not being alone, which I think could come in handy in times of feeling doomed. On the other hand, Breast Cancer Action may be more suited for individuals that who have survived breast cancer or had their loved ones suffer from it, where they feel the need to fight back and to attack it at the roots of its problem. Regardless, I enjoyed your take on this topic 🙂