Ralph Lauren puts survivors at centre of 2026 Pink Pony campaign
Ralph Lauren, the American fashion house, has placed survivors, a patient and a cancer researcher at the centre of its 2026 Pink Pony campaign, titled "The Power of Us", according to WWD. The campaign focuses on experiences of diagnosis and treatment, on community support and on early detection, the process of finding cancer before it spreads.
The cast includes Dr Chanita Hughes-Halbert, director of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Prevention and associate director for Cancer Health Disparities at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, the US university-based cancer centre. She appears alongside Sam Suriakumar, a musician and brain cancer patient at The Royal Marsden, the specialist cancer hospital in Sutton in the United Kingdom.
Five other participants share their own histories with the disease. They are model Ash Foo, an ovarian cancer survivor, and model Cade Thompson, a survivor of hybrid osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. Professional lacrosse player Chad Palumbo, a survivor of rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of muscle tissue, appears with model Marko Manojlovic, a Hodgkin lymphoma survivor, and author and model Saffron Vadher, a leukaemia survivor.
The 2026 Pink Pony collection uses a black-and-pink colour palette across Ralph Lauren styles. Three items carry the largest gift.
Ralph Lauren will donate 100 percent of the purchase price from each Pink Pony Twill Ball Cap, Pink Pony Oxford Shirt and Pink Pony Relaxed Fit Cable-Knit Sweater to cancer charities. It will donate at least 25 percent of the purchase price from every other product in the Pink Pony collection to an international network of cancer charities. In the US, the proceeds benefit the Pink Pony Fund of the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation, the company's charitable arm.
On 17 October, Ralph Lauren will hold its first Global Day of Shopping. It will donate 5 percent of all purchases made that day to support Pink Pony's mission. Ralph's Coffee, the company's cafe chain, will offer a Pink Pony Latte through October. In the US, 100 percent of that drink's purchase price will benefit the Pink Pony Fund.
The Pink Pony Campaign started in 2000 to fund cancer centres and research facilities, according to WWD. Its fund aims to reduce gaps in cancer care and prevention.
What makes this stand out is the choice of faces. Survivors speak for themselves. A researcher and a patient in treatment stand with them. That keeps attention on lived experience rather than clothes alone.
