Breast Cancer Awareness Month is officially over. Not that you needed a reminder:  The abundance of media stories have screeched to a halt. The yogurt lids have resumed their normal shade of blue. And while those NFL players and coaches so proudly wore pink apparel in October, you’d be hard pressed to find even a stitch of the color on them for the rest of football season.

I understand the importance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Funding for the disease skyrockets in October and the barrage of pink seems to really remind women to get their annual mammograms. And thanks to media coverage on the whole concept of previvors, women are starting to learn about their risk and how they can protect themselves.

But sometimes the merchandise tie-ins take it a step too far: I was absolutely caught off-guard, for instance, when I walked into my grocery store this morning and there was this prominent sign that said, “50% Off: Breast Cancer” above a display of pink shopping bags, fanny packs and other accessories.

There’s something about dumping inventory that’s tied in with a cause that seems a little crass. And it’s because of signs like this one  that an entire anti-pink sentiment has been rising lately. For one, naysayers argue, just because a package of breath mints has a pink ribbon on it that doesn’t mean all proceeds are benefitting research to end the disease. And according to a recent New York Times article, Gayle A. Sulik, author of the book Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women’s Health, says that the danger of the plethora of pink is that it gives the impression that we’re making great strides against breast cancer when, in fact, we’ve only scratched the surface.

I agree that we need to focus on the big picture: Finding better ways to fight breast cancer, whether that means prevention, treatment, or eventually a cure. But I don’t see the harm in having a month where everyone, everywhere is aware of the disease. No other disease seems to get the attention that breast cancer receives in October. Ovarian Cancer Month is in September and Heart Disease has claimed the month of February, but  I’m sure if you asked 100 people, very few would be able to tell you that. Yet, you’d have to be living in a cave not to know that this past month belonged to breast cancer.

Awareness is crucial and I think we should take it any way we can get it. But we need to take the awareness a step further and do something about it: talk to a genetics expert about your risk, book your next mammogram, volunteer for a breast cancer non-profit, or sign up to participate in clinical trials and research.

Breast cancer is a year-round problem and we need reminders every month, not just 31 days out of the year. Sure, we can ramp it up every October 1st, but it shouldn’t simmer too low once Halloween has come and gone. I just hope that people aren’t so sick of all the marketing campaigns that they forget about the disease until next October. That sign in my local grocery store really isn’t helping—in fact, I’m going back tomorrow to ask them to take it down.