• Time, Friday, July 29, 2011 9:45 AM

A new study shows that use of the color pink doesn't build awareness of and fundraising for women's issues like breast cancer.

Pink has been the central color in a multi-year campaign for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The problem, say researchers at Rotterdam School of Management, is that too many women directly identify with the color. Stefano Puntoni, a professor at the university, showed in a series of 10 experiments over three years that women were less likely to think themselves at risk and less likely to say they would donate to breast or ovarian cancer advertisements if they employed a pink color scheme.

The problem is that when a woman perceives that a cancer advertisement is aimed directly at her (by the use of gender-specific colors) then there is a higher likelihood she will subconsciously go into a state of denial.

Ironically, the experiment was to test his original hypothesis pink was actually the best color for women's issues. The results were the opposite.

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