Every November, those of us in the diabetes community bewail the "invisibility" of our condition, our passion, our advocacy over the remaining eleven months of the year. One of our ongoing gripes is that -- unlike breast cancer's pink ribbon, the red ribbon of AIDS awareness, Livestrong's iconic yellow wristband, or the double-cross of the American Lung Association -- there is no single, universally-recognized symbol or color representing diabetes.
February's story should give us some hope. Eight years ago, I was first introduced to what are now The Heart Truth® and the "Go Red for Women" campaigns, whose symbols are a red dress with a stylized heart above the left breast. Heart disease in women is often difficult to diagnose, and many more women die from heart disease each year than from breast cancer. Still, nobody seemed to have heard of the Red Dress -- or the exhortation to wear red on the first Friday of February.
What happened to make the Red Dress a visible and recognizable icon? One answer is "time". Another is "sponsors with a public voice". Much as the red ribbon for AIDS awareness was publicized by (and some may say legitimized by) its adoption by the performing arts community, the Red Dress gained its public voice from the fashion industry. Each year, top designers are invited to design red dresses to be worn by well-recognized celebrities in a high-visibility fashion show during New York Fashion Week. In recent years, the dresses have been auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health to further efforts towards women's heart health research. After the first two or three of these fashion shows, the media started paying attention; various companies started producing Red Dress pins and related merchandise, and -- flash forward to 2011 -- it's now a very recognizable symbol.
So, who is the "public voice community" for diabetes awareness? At the moment, it's hard to see beyond pharmaceutical companies, Medicaid/Medicare fulfillment services, and perennial spokesmen/shills such as Mary Tyler Moore (JDRF), Wilford Brimley (Liberty Medical), and Alan Thicke. Admittedly, we do have Bret Michaels, Nick Jonas, and Team Type 1 -- but how often does the average 'tween see any of the JoBros sporting a blue-circle pin? While Team Type 1 has made the jump from a UCI Continental ("UCI Division 3") to a Professional Continental ("UCI Division 2") team, the argument can be made that its brand identity may be overshadowed by that of its primary (and now title) sponsor, Sanofi-Aventis. To top this off, for every Crystal Bowersox showing the nation the daily trials of living with type 1 diabetes, there's a Halle Berry giving out misleading information, or a "Diabetes Man",or a stereotypical senior citizen rejoicing over how "it doesn't hurt to test any more" while her glucometer shows a perfect "104".
Until we have public figures wearing blue-circle pins year-round (and event photographers zooming in on them, and interviewers asking them about it) and providing accurate information to the public, diabetes is likely to remain a secondhand, second-tier cause in the public's eye -- or at least, a condition which neither warrants nor merits public support or ongoing medical attention.
It is up to us, the public figures in our [diabetes] community, and sponsors who are willing to support the International Diabetes Federation (and print the World Diabetes Day logo on their packaging), to change that.
® The Heart Truth, its logo and The Red Dress are registered trademarks of HHS.
