ALCC promotes breast cancer awareness; appeals to inner geeks of those at risk.

Companies that tout their support for breast cancer research are often the same companies whose products may be causing breast cancer. But you won't hear them mention that when they slap pink ribbons on everything.

There's a lesson in cause marketing to be learned from the laudable partnership.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and in honor of that, Sony [SNE] is releasing a special-edition Vaio in two models to commemorate awareness. The models will both be light pink, the trademark color of the traditional breast cancer ribbons.

The Vaio CR pack, which comes in what's called Cosmopolitan Pink, will feature a 14.1-inch LCD, an integrated webcam, an Intel [INTC] Core 2 Duo chip, a built in DVD burner, Bluetooth, and a fancy pink case and mouse in matching pink hue.

At the annual dinner of the Financial Women's Association held at the Grand Hyatt in New York last week, two high achieving women were honored with the titles of private and public sector women of the year.

Evelyn Lauder, Senior VP of the Estée Lauder Companies and Founder and Chairman of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation was awarded the public/non profit sector award for her work in raising funds for breast cancer research -- to date the BCRF has raised over $200 million to support international research.