Wiktionary
n. 1 The practice of a company using support of breast cancer-related charities to promote itself and its products or services. 2 (context LGBT English) The practice of presenting something, particularly a state, as gay-friendly in order to soften or downplay aspects of its reputation considered negative. 3 The practice of making a toy pink to signal that the manufacturer expects girls to play with it. vb. (present participle of pinkwash English)
Wikipedia
Pinkwashing is a portmanteau word which combines " pink" and " whitewashing". The term is most often used to describe various forms of cause marketing.
It may refer to:
- Pinkwashing (breast cancer) – the promotion of consumer goods and services using the pink ribbon that represents support for breast cancer-related charities
- Pinkwashing (LGBT) – the promotion of the gay-friendliness of a corporate or political entity in an attempt to downplay or soften aspects of it considered negative
Pinkwashing is a form of cause marketing that uses a range of pink ribbon logos, displayed on various products.The Pink ribbon logo symbolizes support for breast cancer-related charities or foundations.
The term 'Pink washing' is associated with companies that use the pink ribbon symbol or use the support of breast cancer charities as a marketing technique, to promote one of their products, while at the same time manufactured products have proven to contain ingredients, that are linked to the disease developed or are used in a manner that associates it with the increased risk of disease.
Pinkwashing is a portmanteau compound word of the words pink and whitewashing. In the context of LGBT rights, it is used to describe a variety of marketing and political strategies aimed at promoting a product or an entity through an appeal to queer-friendliness, primarily by political or social activists. The phrase was originally coined by Breast Cancer Action to identify companies that claimed to support people with breast cancer while actually profiting from their illness.