The Billiken's Bluff

I was on the subway with my girlfriend last week when she pointed out to me the inordinate number of commuters in our car wearing rubber yellow bracelets. And it wasn't just a family of tourists outfitted in these bracelets, rather it was a real cross section of the city- various ages, races. I didn’t know what to make of it. I thought it might have something to do with the War in Iraq. I remember people put yellow ribbons on their doors during the first Gulf War to show support for the troops.

Then last Friday I was at a public pool and noticed that all the lifeguards, on duty and off, were wearing these same yellow rubber bracelets. I looked at the mothers, and their children, many were wearing these same bracelets. I’m normally pretty hip to the scene. I surf the web. I read the Metro Section of the NY Times. I watch VH1's Best Week Ever. I’m up on the latest back to school fashions. But I hadn't heard anything about these yellow bands. I asked one of the lifeguards, a 16 year old girl, why everyone (and their mother!!!) was wearing a yellow bracelet. She showed me hers which read LIVE STRONG and told me that-

You can get them from www.wearyellow.com. You give a donation and it supports Lance Armstrong and his cancer fund. You should check it out it’s a really good cause.


STRONG like Arm and yellow like color jersey the leader in the Tour De France wears.


I did just that. Lance Armstrong 7-year cancer survivor, and 6-time Tour De France champion is trying to raise $5 million for his Cancer Foundation. The yellow LIVE STRONG bracelets only cost $1 each, a very modest donation. They can be purchased at Niketown stores or ordered online in bundles of 10, 100, or an entire case of 1,200 bracelets. But I know what your thinking… I want to outfit my son’s entire little league team with LIVE STRONG bracelets, but I’m not sure that their skinny wrists will be able to hold the bracelet on. Not to worry they come in youth sizes as well.

If I was the type of guy who got excited about innovative marketing plans, I'd be tickled pink by this one. It really is a smart way to raise money. Most people can afford the $10 donation that buys you 10 bracelets. However, most people do not have 10 wrists. So when the shipment arrives you dispense the the wrist bands to 10 of your closest friends. This furthers the cause by getting people such as myself curious about why everyone is wearing the yellow wrist bands. Which in turn gets me to visit the WearYellow website (and take the time to post about it on my blog!).

Its been a tremendous success so far. All the various bundles of bracelets are on back order, even the 1,200 pack. And there have been 16,573,946 requests since November 4, 2003. With that many bracelets in circulation cancer doesn't stand a chance.



I'm not the type of person who boycotts Nike sneakers because they were manufactured in Indonesian sweatshops. But I do approach anything Phil Knight has his hand in with a certain amount of skepticism. Nike is bankrolling the production of these LIVE STRONG bracelets. The WearYellow wesbite links to Nike.com. An innocent bystander like me decides to check out the WearYellow website. Five minutes later I’m on Nike.com and I’m taking my credit card out about to purchase a pair of Retro Jordan IV’s for $110.

I'm also skeptical of Lance Armstrong. His is a feel-good/inspirational story. He overcame cancer and continues to dominate cycling's premier event, the Tour De France. In July, former Armstrong assistant Emma O’Reilly made claims that revived past suspicions about Armstrong and blood doping. O'Reilly said that Armstrong asked her to dispose of used syringes and that she gave him makeup to conceal needle marks on his arm. Armstrong insisted that he is drug-free and is suing O'Reilly. These were just rumors, but competitive bicycling (it still sounds like an oxymoron to me) is riddled with blood doping accusations, and if Lance used this enhancement it would make his story a lot less inspirational, and give a new meaning to his LIVE STRONG motto.

People love supporting a cause that is non-political, consumes no time or effort, and cost a nominal amount of money. It's one of those ubiquitous causes that you can't not support. Its for a good cause, they’re fighting cancer, you feel like an asshole if you aren’t wearing a yellow bracelet.

This bracelet phenomenom is a lot like when the A-list celebrities turn out for a save the Uruguayan Rainforest. Paris Hilton doesn’t know if Uruguay has a rainforest (neither do I) but she does know that it is an event, a happening, and that Nick Cage will be there. It's like those Che Guevara T-shirts. People who wear them know little about Guevara's politics (he fought alongside Fidel Castro) but they know (if they even know this much) that he had long hair, road a motorcycle, was the Cuban equivalent of James Dean, and has a profile that looks good and makes for a fashionable T-Shirt. People don't know what type of cancer Armstrong had, or why there is such a thing as competitive bicycling. But they do know that the yellow bracelets are for a 'good cause', that they are fashionable, and that they have a vague mantra written on them that you can't possibly argue with. Who doesn't want to LIVE STRONG?

Well I’m taking a stand I will not wear a yellow bracelet (although I will still try my hardest to LIVE STRONG), and I will not, under any circumstances, like Lance Armstrong.