pinkwashing

Victor Steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Thu Mar 22 07:36:42 UTC 2012


Of course, I find another important instance right after firing off a
somewhat emotion-based comment. This one is from Wiki and is completely
unrelated to the other meaning:

> Pinkwashing
> The misuse of marketing campaigns by businesses using the pink ribbon
> on their products have been described as pinkwashing, a portmanteau of
> pink ribbon and whitewash, which was coined by Breast Cancer Action.
> They use the term to highlight companies or products which feature a
> pink ribbon, without donating money to charity, or with no
> transparency regarding where the funds are going. It also describes
> the use of a pink ribbon on products with known or suspected links to
> cancer.

The entry is under "Pink Ribbon", which why only this particular meaning
of "pinkwashing" is mentioned. Portmanteau or not, my earlier comments
were meant to suggest that X-washing was a snowclonelette.

     VS-)



On 3/22/2012 3:31 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> There have been several fairly diverse references to whitewashing over
> the past few months, some of them prompting sarcastic comments about
> "blackwashing"--also quite diverse, but none positive. Now I find a
> term that appears to be widely accepted in certain circles:
>
> http://goo.gl/BzAMm
>> The Seattle LBGT Commission canceled the March 16 City Hall reception
>> the night before after pressure from some members of the gay
>> community, who said that Israel is touting its good record on gay
>> rights to hide what they called its poor treatment of Palestinians,
>> according to the Seattle Times. The action is called "pinkwashing" in
>> pro-Palestinian circles.
>
> I'll skip any editorial comments and will just report the sighting.
> If, for some reason, my opinion on the subject interest anyone, I'll
> be happy to communicate it offlist.
>
>     VS-)
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list