David Lauren: We’re focused on cancer. This isn’t about just sending a check. This is our mission.

Ralph Lauren wasn’t interested in an eponymous cancer center when, in 2003, he helped establish the first Ralph Lauren Center in Harlem.

“My father didn’t want to put his name on the cancer center door, because he felt it was showing off,” said David Lauren, chief branding & innovation officer, Ralph Lauren Corporation and president of the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation. “This company has given away millions and millions and millions of dollars as a company, and Ralph Lauren independently. 

“Very little of it has our name on it, not even the cards and invitations to events have our name on it. It’s just not the way we played the game,” Lauren said. “But in this instance, we began to learn the value of our brand in this way.”

On April 17, David Lauren attended the opening of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Prevention in Southeast DC, which was funded in part by a $25 million commitment from his foundation to create five cancer navigation facilities. A story about the Georgetown Lombardi center focused on underserved communities in the nation’s capital appears here.

“I think that has ignited change in how other brands have used their names to help causes,” Lauren said. “I think it’s no longer just doing it to have your name on the side of a building, but you are really invested personally, with a community to make a change.

“We didn’t do it with a plan—there were no consultants, there were no best practices—we did it because we felt it was right, and it’s become a very popular way of reaching people.”

Lauren spoke with Matthew Ong, associate editor of The Cancer Letter.

Matthew Ong: David, thank you for speaking with us. Ralph’s 1989 creation of the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research at Lombardi is well-known in Washington. Was that the starting point for your foundation’s continuing investment in oncology? Could you walk me through some of your history here?

David Lauren: Yes, the major push around cancer really started when Ralph spent time with Nina Hyde. She had been a friend. She was a reporter, but they weren’t that close—she hadn’t been in to see him in a while.

And when he saw her, he said, “How are you doing?” And he could tell that something was wrong. And she began to tell him that she was suffering from cancer. In the course of their meeting, I think it actually spawned a true friendship. 

I think what started as a work conversation became much more emotional and much more about life. And by the time it was over, he really wanted to try to help her. He began to ask questions and try to learn about cancer.

She was also trying to raise awareness and spark people’s interest. I think over the years, the company had done a variety of small things around cancer, just like we did things around AIDS, around a number of causes. 

But I think in that moment, it was like, “Let’s do something, let’s really do something.” Nina was able to connect him with Katharine Graham, who was running The Washington Post.

Also, my dad was one of the board members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and he was able to pull together the leading designers at the time, with Calvin Klein, and Donna Karan, and Diane von Furstenberg, and go down the list of the best American designers and began to pull them together.

There were all these moments where, all of a sudden, it was some of the great faces of fashion and business and politics, and it was quite amazing. And this became this interesting push, for the entire industry, all of a sudden, was focused on fighting breast cancer.

I think we were able to ignite millions of people around the world. The effort with the CFDA turned into something called Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, which became a global push by designers all around the world—designers were wearing it everywhere. We had designed a “target” that became a symbol for fashion’s fight against cancer.

That really became a very important shirt, and for a while, it was worn by everybody, you would open up fashion magazines and every month you’d see pro bono ads saying, “Fight cancer with the fashion industry.” 

We were able to open the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research at Georgetown Lombardi Center in Washington. And that really was the first real research place that kicked it off. From there, Princess Diana was involved, and we started supporting her efforts in London. 

Ultimately, today it’s the Royal Marsden that her son continues to support.

Ralph Lauren had sort of sparked it. He also took the polo player—that was already a very famous iconic logo—that people were wearing, and he turned it pink on the runway during a fashion show. 

And this, I think, really was one of the first times that a fashion company had said that “We’re not just selling you clothes, but we’re selling you a message.”

This idea of messages, that was long before it was fashionable to do that. It changed the way people thought it was comfortable to talk about cancer, which has taken years for people to feel comfortable with.

In the middle of all that was Dr. Harold Freeman, who had a message about the disparity of cancer in underserved communities, specifically Harlem.

And he had spent his career—he is about the same age as my father—Dr. Freeman had devoted his life to understanding the disparity of cancer, basically, less than two miles from my father’s office.

Dr. Freeman came in with Dr. Harold Varmus, there were a few people from Memorial Sloan Kettering. But really, the thing that makes it interesting is that it really wasn’t about some big corporate ask.

My dad didn’t want to see spreadsheets and facts, he really wanted to hear Dr. Freeman share his studies from his heart. And he spoke with a lot of passion and compassion for the community and what he had seen.

I think Dr. Freeman, he tells the story that he thought like any place that he had been, he walked in a number of doors trying to get money for years. It’ll go through the corporate ranks and they’ll get some approvals and “We’ll get a little bit of money and we’ll get 10% of the way there, if we’re lucky.”

But he got 100% of the money he wanted, and it came in less than 24 hours. He had an answer: Let’s do it. Ralph Lauren didn’t go and put it to a committee, and it was just, he said, “This guy knows what he wants to do, and it’s consistent with what we’re trying to do with cancer.”

There was no organized philanthropy, no checking a lot of boxes. This was our mission. We didn’t have 25 different causes. This was it, let’s keep building on cancer, and we were very focused on that. So, this made sense. We could stay targeted, and we could stay focused.

Between the Nina Hyde Center, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Ralph Lauren Center in Harlem, and the Ralph Lauren Centre for Breast Cancer Research at the Royal Marsden in London, we began to support efforts in many countries—Italy, Japan, go down the list, we really were able to raise money in a lot of different markets. Maybe more than anything, we kept the conversation going about cancer.

So, that’s the long story, which I think is very important. 

I think what’s important to know is that it comes from the heart, and many employees here have suffered from cancer, and that has helped to keep the momentum going—their own stories, their own passion. 

Over 30 years, you have to know that people get distracted, they have businesses, they have day jobs, they have work, and they don’t think about cancer every day. They don’t want to think about it.

People get distracted, they have businesses, they have day jobs, they have work, and they don’t think about cancer every day. They don’t want to think about it. But when you turn and look at somebody at the table and they’re suffering or someone in their family is suffering, you realize we’ve got to keep doing it.

But when you turn and look at somebody at the table and they’re suffering or someone in their family is suffering, you realize we’ve got to keep doing it. And so, we’ve kept the spark going in so many different ways, because different employees have kept the fight and they’ve kept inspiring people.

Now, as a company, thousands of us walk in different countries to fight cancer, and we walk as a small army in a fight. 

A couple thousand people in New York City walk through Central Park. We do it in Korea. We do it in Germany. You pick your country. In Paris. We are making videos and talking to survivors, and about some people who didn’t survive. And we’re sharing those stories.

We do a very major pro bono campaign with our media partners all around the world, and we have taken our core competencies in design, marketing, and we’ve used them to create products and tell stories that will inspire customers to join our fight. We raise money in our stores. We raised money online. We raise money through events.

We did an event with Oprah Winfrey at Lincoln Center; we raised millions of dollars in the fight against cancer. We worked with LeBron James up at the MSK Ralph Lauren Center; we made a limited edition basketball and we raised, again, tons of money. 

And we just keep finding partners in new ways, like Sheryl Crow—these are notable names, as well as people that you’ve never heard of who just inspire us every day to do cool things that will make people join our fight.

DL: I think what makes our company interesting is, yes, it’s a company, but a company is people. I think there’s a very big heart in this company. It’s about people.

I remember there was a woman in our office and she probably was 30. And she only went to get checked for cancer because she was working on our Pink Pony campaign. She worked on it for a year, didn’t get checked, didn’t even think about it. But then one day she’s like, “You know what? I’m working on it. It’s all about inspiring people to go and get checked.”

She found out she had cancer. You can imagine, she’s like, “I only did it because of the ad campaign. I believe in this even more than I did a year ago when we first started working on this.” So, real things happen to people and that spreads the message up.

I think Dr. Freeman hit another nerve in my father, which was that my grandparents lived in the Bronx. My grandmother, who was born in Russia, she did not feel comfortable going to get checked up at the doctor. 

Very scared to walk in, worried that she couldn’t afford the doctor this week, “What if they found something? What if they didn’t find something? We don’t have the money. Do I trust the doctor?” It wasn’t like they were getting the greatest health care in the world.

And I think when Dr. Freeman told the story of the people in his community, that he lived with, that were his family, basically, it hit a nerve. 

He was like “Ralph, they can’t afford to just walk into a doctor, and then get sent to another doctor, and then sent to another doctor, and then find out that insurance doesn’t cover it. And then find out that there was something wrong and they get sent to the wrong person.

“The reason we’re seeing these cancer rates is because no one is guiding them to tell them how to be preemptive. And they’re fearful, culturally, of walking in, especially the men.” He talked about the high rates with men, and he also talked about cultural habits.

He said, “This is leading to incredible disproportionate rates.  So we have to ignite change in this community and we need to start by being preemptive. And then we got to make people feel comfortable to walk in.” 

And he said, “You need to put your name on the door, Ralph.” This was an ongoing, very long conversation. My father didn’t want to put his name on the cancer center door, because he felt it was showing off.

All of a sudden, it was some of the great faces of fashion and business and politics, and it was quite amazing. And this became this interesting push, for the entire industry, all of a sudden, was focused on fighting breast cancer.

It’s interesting to note that this company has given away millions and millions and millions of dollars as a company, and Ralph Lauren independently. Very little of it has our name on it, not even the cards and invitations to events have our name on it. It’s just not the way we played the game. 

But in this instance, we began to learn the value of our brand in this way.

And I think that has ignited change in how other brands have used their names to help causes. I think it’s no longer just doing it to have your name on the side of a building, but you are really invested personally, with a community to make a change.

So, this isn’t about just sending a check, this is about inspiring our leadership team, our customers, and all of our employees to join the fight with us. And I think what we’ve tried to do is to raise awareness, but also literally, start the walk, start the marches, drive people in there.

I think that’s different. And we didn’t do it with a plan—there were no consultants, there were no best practices—we did it because we felt it was right and it’s become a very popular way of reaching people.

If you could jump ahead five years from now, what do you hope you’d be able to say this funding commitment has achieved?

DL: When we were at the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Prevention at Georgetown Lombardi in Southeast DC the other day, I said, “I don’t know what everyone’s expecting. How are we going to really influence this community?” 

And someone said to me—I think it’s a Jewish proverb from the Talmud—but he said, “If you save one life, you save the world.” And when he said that to me, I said, “That’s the best quote you could say to us. Thank you. That was really inspiring.”