Martin F. Shaw for The Smiths (John Cena, Vince McMahon, Cancer)

Last Monday on RAW, the whole WWE roster (well, the “important” characters) stood on the entrance ramp as John Cena unveiled a cheque for the sum of $1,000,000. The “whole company” was out to show support for “the cause” they had been pushing over the last few months. What was the cause? It wasn’t breast cancer research, it wasn’t breast cancer treatment, it wasn’t even regular cancer research… (it was more to do with Linda’s political positioning and tax refunds, but read on anyway).

Of the $1,000,000 WWE are donating (from profits made from Cena merch), roughly $150,000 will go towards finding a cure. Susan G. Komen For The Cure spends 15% of their income on actually finding a cure. Why should you give a shit? Well, reason one is that the people buying the merch have clearly been duped.

Reason number two is that in the 2009/2010 financial year, Susan G. Komen for the cure spent $75.4 million (20.9 percent of its total income) on research. By comparison,  Cancer Research UK, a British, uh, cancer research charity, spent £332,000,000 ($535,018,000)(69% of total income) on research during the following financial year.

Reason number three is that you would think finding a cure for cancer would be the ultimate goal and that a non-profit would not sue another over using the words “for the cure”, but the Komen organisation spend quite a lot of money hassling other charities for that very reason. They’ve legally threatened over 100 at the time of writing. It gets worse though: On top of pursuing anyone who uses “for the cure” in relation to, uh, finding a cure, they’ve also threatened others over the use of the colour pink in conjunction with cancer.

The official line from the Komen organisation is that “The foundation protects its trademarks as a matter of financial stewardship and that the group wants to avoid confusion. A mix-up could mean a sizable donation, landing on another charity’s books.” because heaven forbid someone should donate to another charity looking for a cure for cancer, that’d be a fucking atrocity, right?

For more information on the Komen legal situation, check out Pink Ribbons, Inc. or google.