rubber wristbands

[littlepea]

anyone seen just how many of these rubber wristbands people are wearing these days? there's so many different ones it's hard to remember them all ... there's:

yellow "livestrong" bands for cancer research
pink bands for breast cancer research
blue bands for anti-bullying*
black & white for anti-racism**
purple for the Milan Foundation (cystic fibrosis)
red for aids research
red for "keep a child alive" (african poverty?)
white for anti-poverty***

* this was started by BBC Radio 1, so it might not have spread to america.
** lots of football (soccer) players are wearing these
*** dunno how widespread this is, but it definitely exists

personally i think it's best to give to charity in secret, if you go around bragging about how you gave to charity then that's not really in the spirit of it (ie. giving something for nothing).

however, if wearing these bands becomes fashionable then the more people that buy them the better because all the proceeds go to charity (or they should at least).

saying that i haven't actually bought a band or given to any of these charities, though i often give money to the homeless in the street ...

[Tara]

Here in the U.S. where I live, I've only seen the yellow ones. I'm interested in the others. But how much of the money we buy them for really goes to the causes it stands for? For example, the racism ones, where do the money from those go?

[littlepea]

not too sure.

there's a big world-wide campaign in football (i think it's world wide at least) which uses the slogan "Show racism the red card", it probably goes to the people running that campaign.

i'm sure 100% of the profits don't go to charity, but if it gets people who don't normally give to charity to donate then at least it's something.

the only downside would be if it makes people buy the wristband instead of donating to charity, but i think they are more than made up for by the people buying them cos they are fashionable

[Amalcas]

Seen 'em all....the major problem appears to be "fake" bands -- ones that do not contribute to any charity. Its amazing the arguments that come up over that.
If I remember correctly, there is something about never taking the band off.....

[littlepea]

i looked into it further, the black & white bands are made by nike, but they have nothing to do with that particular campaign (it might have something to do with another charity, though, i didn't bother looking into that).

the "show racism the red card" people have their own wristband, though, and it's also red. it appears to be just a UK thing, however.