← NotTheGlobe
NEW YORK — The American Cancer Society (ACS) has cancelled its long-running Wine & Spirits Industry Gala, the $22-million Manhattan fundraiser that let liquor executives buy tables at a black-tie event benefiting the fight against a disease their product helps cause.
The October Rainbow Room bash is dead. The webpage's gone, quietly rerouted to a general donations page. The photo album of braised beef and pineapple margaritas has been deleted like evidence.
A spokesperson called it an "evaluation of how events align with our mission." Translation: someone in a meeting finally asked, "Wait — what are we fundraising against?" New CEO Shane Jacobson had already been "taking a fresh look at all of this," which turned out to mean a cancer charity maybe shouldn't run an open bar for the alcohol industry. Tufts Univerity researcher Michael Siegel compared it to hosting a tobacco gala — "basically the same thing," he said, not wrong.
Not everyone got the memo.
Just one day later, the American Heart Association (AHA) confirmed it will launch an annual black-tie fundraiser, the Deep-Fried Butter Gala, funded entirely by a consortium of butter, bacon, and deep-fryer manufacturers.
Asked whether the timing gave anyone at AHA pause, a spokesperson said no. "We're aware of what ACS did. We just don't think it applies to us," she said, standing near a chocolate fountain sponsored by a company that also sells lard by the drum.
Cardiologists briefed on the plan reportedly asked several clarifying questions, none of which changed the outcome.
Guests at ACS's future events will still pay for their own drinks.
Guests at the AHA gala will pay for nothing.
Apart from their health.