Color Clash: Pink or Purple?

October 25th, 2010 | Shonali Burke | 8 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed my friend Kim Wells was sporting a purple ribbon on her Twitter avatar.

Ever-curious, I asked why.

Turns out October is, among many other things, Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

I say “among many other things,” because October can be associated with so many other colors. In the non-profit/cause marketing world, most notably pink, and thus breast cancer.

Image: Kurtis Garbutt via Flickr, Creative Commons

Kim, who runs the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence (CAEPV), asked what I thought was a valid question on her blog: where is all the purple?

Filed under Communication, Marketing, Philanthropy, Public Relations, Shonali Burke | Tags: breast cancer awareness, cause marketing, domestic violence awareness, kim wells, liz scherer, pink, purple | Comments (8)

This Is What 40 Looks Like

March 8th, 2010 | Shonali Burke | 14 Comments

There’s a terrific post over at Women Grow Business today on “the incredible disappearing woman” by Liz Scherer, one of WGB’s regular contributors. As editor of WGB, you could accuse me of being biased, and I suppose that would be understandable… though not, IMHO, accurate, but that’s neither here nor there.

When I read through Liz’ post, these words of Gloria Steinem when told she didn’t look 40, as relayed by Mollie Katzen, struck a particular chord with me:

“This is what 40 looks like.”

What an incredibly empowering phrase.

I celebrated my 40th birthday this year with as much pandemonium as I could muster. My community was incredibly generous, helping me raise money for a cause particularly dear to my heart. And then I had an absolutely amazing time in London, UK, as part of my belated “birthday blowout.”