The soup chronicles continue. . . .

So! We were discussing Campbell's soup. We had determined that their actual contribution to Breast Cancer research was apparently not public information.

We mentioned their special Earth Day soup labels and were in the middle of defending them (poor beleaguered multi-national that they are) when we realized we were running a wee bit long and some of y'all had actually begun to doze at your keyboards. (And rumor has it that a certain fan in Washington was actually asleep AND drooling on her keyboard) Not wanting anyone electrocuted on our watch we took a short recess until today.

So we are going to leave the Breast Cancer arena for a moment while we ponder the Earth Day thing. But don't worry - it's all connected!

So Campbell's 'dresses up' their soup cans in alternate colors but the purchases of the soups does not trigger a donation to any particular cause. However, according to their website, buying the soup does help the environment.

How? Glad you asked:

By letting you add the water at home, we can make the cans smaller, which saves a lot of metal, and lighter, which saves fuel when bringing it to your local store shelf.

How much fuel and metal are we saving? Glad you Asked:

2.6 million gallons of fuel saved every year = Taking about 5,000 cars off the road every year

and

130 million pounds of steel saved every year = The amount of steel needed to build about 12 new Gateway Arches in St. Louis every year.

Does St Louis really need 12 new Gateway arches?



Actually that wouldn't be a bad idea.



Seriously.




Look at this picture:

Isn't that pretty?


Why is the Arch pink? To celebrate Breast Cancer awareness month!

What prompted the National Park Service to jump on the pink band wagon?
They were forced to.

Seriously.

Apparently when reps from Estee Lauder and May department stores first approached the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Thats the given name of the arch) and asked to light it up pink, the officials said no.

Apparently they had concerns that if they allowed the pink,  they would be forced by fairness to allow other colors. They had been asked to light it in red for Gay Pride week and in rainbow colors for the National Heart Association. Or visa versa.

The point being that there are many good causes and the park service believed it couldn't or shouldn't say yes to all of them. One park service official was quoted as saying "If allowed to occur, the Arch in essence becomes a billboard to be used for purposes not consistent with the intent of the Memorial,"

So Estee Lauder called a senator and badda bang, badda boom - the arch was ordered lit. The legislation, Senate Bill 2895, passed the house and senate unanimously.

I don't know. Y'all know I am a loyal servant of the pink, but is this necessary or wise?  I mean the legislation - not the idea of making huge brightly lit spectacles - that's always a good idea! You have to admit, the arch in pink is breathtakingly beautiful.

It should be noted that once the bill passed, all the park service folks threw themselves into this enthusiastically. They were never in favor of breast cancer - they just had a different mission in their lives.

So what do you think? What if some less popular cause like Multiple Sclerosis requests that we light it up orange? (Aside of the fact that I would be on the first east-bound train to go see it!) 

And since Estee Lauder has lit up the Empire State Building and Niagra falls and LAX and some castle in Austria and the Leaning Tower of Pisa; what's to stop her from setting her sights on the White House?

Oh. Ok. That's mighty purty. Can't wait to see it orange during MS month. Oh wait - MS only gets a week in March.

Yes, Breast Cancer Awareness and research is vitally important. Vital as in life and death. And yes, I love huge shiny pink things. Yet I can't help but think that we should never ask for something for ourselves that we would not like to see other organizations ask for. There are enough privately owned buildings and public structures that aren't iconic that would be almost as impressive without opening floodgates.

I said almost as impressive. Take a gander at these:

So that's enough about soup for one day.

Don't forget that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!  Think Pink!

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