A NOBEL PRIZE FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS?

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a Nobel Prize for public relations?

You might say that’s what Al Gore just picked up today in chilly Norway. Thanks Al, but thanks also to the remarkable powers of a good Powerpoint.

Al’s no scientist; he didn’t really “do” any of the science of global warming. As the nation's vice president for nearly a decade in office, you might say he even failed rather spectacularly at the politics of slowing down his own country’s polluting ways.

Nothing as bold or as green as the Environmental Protection Act ever came out of the Clinton administration – and Al was point man on the environment the entire eight years.

But atonement is good for the soul, so Al Gore decided to take it on the road anyway after he left office. He put wings on his bully pulpit and spread the word of this very real planetary emergency.

Al flew around the country and around the world armed with … well, just with his slides, a few alarming statistics, and an couple of short video strips.

All that effort must have stopped global warming in its tracks … or why else was our Al was in Oslo this morning to receive his award?

Just teasing, Al. The kid who does come up with a fix will probably be someone who saw your movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

But if the Nobel Peace Prize is really a PR prize, let’s award it next year, at least, to an organization that has spread a message that is making a real change now.

My Nobel PR candidate for next year? It would be The Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation, which is 25 years old this year, and the founder, Suzy Komen’s sister, Nancy Komen Brinker.

Hundreds of thousands of women are alive today because of the research funded at key cancer centers worldwide by Komen.

The most remarkable achievement of the foundation for our public relations profession is its astute and unprecedented use of consumer co-branding – "Think Pink" – with blockbuster partners like Microsoft, BMW, Nordstrom, OfficeMax, General Mills, Eastman Kodak, American Airlines, Hallmark, Phillip’s, Sylvania, 3M and Ford.

Susan Komen died in 1980 of breast cancer. Her sister, Nancy , has been U.S. Ambassador to Hungary and is now head of U.S. protocol for George Bush.

As her sister succumbed to her disease, Nancy was appalled at the suffering Suzy went through, the false leads and promises before she died. Several years later, Nancy developed breast cancer herself, but in-time intervention saved her life.

The Komen sisters are actually from Illinois, but Nancy’s now-ended marriage to restaurant king Norman Brinker made her a powerhouse in Texas philanthropy circles, and she used that clout to start the Komen foundation in downtown Dallas.

Marketing executive Hala Moddelmog is president and CEO these days while the founder handles the protocol needs of the White House.

Nancy deserves the lion's share of the credit for this brave band of change masters in Dallas. But don't overlook master communicator Susan Carter, a graduate of Texas Christian University, who created most of the astonishing corporate partnership and cause-related marketing programs that are the public face of this foundation.

Picking Dallas, which is still the headquarters for Nancy’s foundation, was a wise step indeed. Those Texas women like Susan Carter who make up most of the staff ride and shoot and lasso from an early age. Those partners they have roped in are strong and committed.

Through its events and co-branding partnerships, the foundation has raised nearly $1 billion – and plans to raise and spend another $1 billion over the next decade.

It spends that money wisely – the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Founda is ranked a top-tier 4-star philanthropy by the tough-minded Charity Navigator.

Is there today a consumer product that has not issued at least one run in the campaign's distinctive pink hue? After I bought a box of Cambell’s Chicken Noodle Soup cans all wrapped in the foundation’s “Think Pink” labels, I decided there might not be one.

Credit Susan Carter and her amazing outreach staff at Komen.

My mother died a terrible death in the early 1960s from breast cancer. Her losing struggle with the disease – false hopes, overconfident surgeons, slow agonizing death – paralleled Susan Komen’s sad experience fifteen years later.

I think of my mother whenever I see Komen pink co-branded onto some consumer label – which means I think of my mother a lot these days.

On second thought, that Komen crowd probably can’t win that Nobel award in Oslo. It’s really a peace award, isn’t it?

There will be no peace settlement signed in Dallas by these remarkable women in their war on breast cancer. They want total victory. They want absolute capitulation from this terrible disease. And I think they will soon have it.

Don’t mess with Texas, or the women who make it great.