I'm definitely not arguing that workplaces shouldn't be more understanding of chronic conditions. Legal protections exist for people with disabilities and chronic conditions for a reason, but even with these protections we should be doing more to legally protect people and their jobs.

However, getting people to sign this pledge doesn't seem to really accomplish anything other than serve as an advertising campaign for this movement and help spread misleading propaganda that working after being diagnosed with cancer is in the best interest of the individual battling cancer.

In reality, people battling cancer or any chronic illness seem to have better outcomes if they continue to have a sense of purpose during treatment, but a sense of purpose is not inherently tied to working or employment.

Given that this is an advertisement company with a documented history of peddling harmful corporate propaganda (fueling the opioid crisis, whitewashing detention centers for children) as well as a reputation for mistreating their own employees, this really comes off as typical (for them) predatory corporate propaganda aimed at normalizing people being pushed to continue working until their bodies physically can't keep going, and claiming that doing so is actually beneficial to their recovery.

Almost like they saw opportunity in the crisis of rising cancer rates, increased public policy aimed at government deregulation, and workplace protections being stripped away from many individuals? Which given their history, doesn't really seem implausible.

Interesting but definitely not unrelated sidenote: States like W.V. and KY were hit especially hard by the opioid epidemic much earlier than the rest of the U.S. because pharmaceutical companies targeted coal mining areas with similar propaganda, and this is the company that helped them do it. They knew people there commonly suffered debilitating back injuries while working in the mines, and peddled prescription opiates as a solution that would allow people to continue working pain free even after being injured.

Ad giant Publicis Health agrees to $350M settlement over claims it helped fuel opioid crisis

"For a decade, Publicis helped opioid manufacturers like Purdue Pharma convince doctors to overprescribe opioids, directly fueling the opioid crisis and causing the devastation of communities nationwide," said New York Attorney General Letitia James. "No amount of money can compensate for lives lost and addiction suffered, but with this agreement, Publicis will cease their illegal behavior and pay $350 million to help our communities rebuild."

Opioids and Appalachia

When Purdue Pharma began marketing OxyContin to physicians in 1996, Appalachia was among the first regions that the company’s drug representatives visited — in part because its physicians tended to be frequent, high-volume prescribers of opioids. On any given day, Purdue had eight to 10 OxyContin sales representatives working in West Virginia. They “descended like locusts,” said one journalist, exceeding the deployment in similarly sized markets.