As promised earlier, this is my rant on those damn plastic for-a-cause bracelets. You know what I’m talking about. It all started with Lance Armstrong and his Live Strong yellow bracelets to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the fight against cancer. It was a very nice idea – a cheaply-made product with a high mark-up that can sell inexpensively and help a good cause. It quickly got the attention of celebrities and folks everywhere.

Usher looks all right here but doesn't that bracelet look CHEAP?
The problem is this: Much like ribbons-for-a-cause (I have a ribbon in every color, I bet, and I have no idea what most of them ever stand for! The ribbon market is saturated. Give it up. And turning your ribbon into a magnet for your car does not make the idea any better), the bracelet-for-a-cause market has become saturated and the point is being lost.

Here is an excerpt from a conversation between my friend Dave and I, slightly edited because my memory is more of the high points:

Dave: You know those bracelets, those…
Me: I hate them.
Dave: Yeah, me too.
Me: They’re stupid.
Dave: You just shouldn’t war them with like… this is followed up with fired up stuttering.
Me and Dave in unison: With business suits.
Dave: Well, I was at work in the elevator with these two guys in power suits with their hair all slicked back have conversations about their clients. Then the one raises his arm and has on this cheap, plastic bracelet.
Me: Looks terrible.

So do you really want people to be saying things like this about your stupid bracelets? I can’t speak for everyone, only for Dave and I, but we agree. They are stupid.

AND, for additional evidence of their stupidity:

  1. They sell them at drugstores with messages like Cute, Sassy and Spoiled on them
  2. My friend had a legitimate business idea to sell black bracelets that would say F*** Strong. Without the *** of course.Ugly. Tacky. Stupid.
This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.