No doubt you’ve seen the Yoplait ad by now. It features the stereotypical got-it-together woman who jogs, rides a bike, works out — and then opens up a cup of smooth, lip-smacking Yoplait yogurt. As various women lick yogurt off the back of a pink-tinted lid, the ad talks about the company’s " Save Lids to Save Lives " campaign. For every pink lid mailed in from now until December 31, Yoplait will donate 10 cents to raise money to battle breast cancer. The ad ends with our conscientious women stuffing handfuls of pink lids into envelopes addressed to Yoplait.

The ad is innocuous enough. It may even inspire people to give to a worthy cause. Until, that is, you consider what Yoplait failed to say: a woman would have to eat three cups of yogurt every day for four months — or 360 containers — to raise the rather paltry sum of $36. Knowing this, you might decide to donate to a local organization that directly helps women suffering from breast cancer instead.

It’s what Barbara Brenner, the director of the San Francisco–based Breast Cancer Action (BCA), says you should do. Indeed, to counteract Yoplait’s commercial hype, Brenner and fellow advocates at the BCA have just launched their own campaign ( " Think Before You Pink " ) to urge people to consider the big picture before digging into their wallets and buying products for the cause. As she puts it, " We want people to think about the ways in which companies can exploit women " by portraying themselves as breast-cancer advocates. Take, as an example, the Eureka " Clean for the Cure " campaign. Whenever someone buys a Eureka vacuum cleaner — specifically, a WhirlWind Lite Speed model — from now until December 31, Eureka will donate $1 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, which funds awareness, screening, and research programs. What Eureka doesn’t mention when trumpeting the campaign is that the WhirlWind vacuum has a $170 price tag. That means that the company is making a considerable profit for every dollar that goes to charity. Evidently, as Brenner notes, " Eureka cares more about getting people to buy its product than about what it can do with its actual donations. "

Eureka, however, pales when compared to American Express, which has launched a " Charge for a Cure " campaign. This month (which happens to be breast-cancer-awareness month), American Express has vowed to donate to the Komen Foundation every time a cardholder makes a transaction. The company’s tag line stresses that, " in the search for a cure, every dollar counts. " Yet for every transaction charged, American Express only commits itself to donating one penny. Which, of course, means that cardholders have to charge 100 transactions to donate a dollar.

Although these corporate efforts do raise much-needed money, Brenner and advocates suggest that " some money " isn’t necessarily good enough. Especially since breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women: an estimated two million American women live with the disease. This year, as many as 203,000 new cases will be diagnosed in the US. That works out to one new case every three minutes. So while more companies are marketing products to raise money for breast cancer, Brenner explains, " it’s an illusion that, by buying something, you can solve the problem. " Before contributing, she adds, people should ask the companies tough questions: how much money goes to the cause? Who gets it, and how? " If enough people did these things, " Brenner concludes, " companies would get the message that solving this problem is not as simple as buying a product. "

To find out more about the various corporate cause-related marketing campaigns for breast cancer, and who they really benefit, check out the " Think Before You Pink " Web site at www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org