Opinion: Our biggest problems deserve substantial action

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Everything is pink, from NFL players’ gloves to special-edition bottles of 5-Hour Energy at the drug store.

November will be Lung Cancer Awareness Month. It’s a safe bet that neither the NFL’s uniforms nor your favored energy drink will reflect this fact.

The branding campaigns around breast cancer have been instrumental in advancing the treatment and early diagnosis of a disease that was once referred to in hushed tones as “the ‘C’ word.”

But we ought to think critically about the disconnect between successful branding and the health issues that require our most immediate attention. Heart disease and lung cancer are the first and third leading causes of death in the U.S., respectively.

These ailments tend not to be viewed as sympathetically because they are largely seen as preventable.

Apart from whether this makes the resulting deaths less tragic (it doesn’t), their preventability is exactly what should encourage the types of campaigns that have so thoroughly benefitted efforts to combat breast cancer.

Broader efforts to address relationships with food would help combat heart disease in those for whom healthy food is either too expensive or too far away. Similarly, a popular anti-smoking campaign could significantly reduce the number of people who die from smoking or second-hand smoke.

Such campaigns would not have to come at the expense of breast cancer awareness or those who have benefitted from it.

Yet we must ensure that the public’s health priorities reflect the seriousness of the threats at hand rather than the efficacy of a given disease’s branding.