Buy Nothing Day

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Filed in City
November 21, 2006

As climate change boils to the top of our collective conscious more and more peeps be looking at their role in the sitch. Dat be like all the shopping we be doing, yo. We be all about the bling, hundred dollar bills y'all. Our identities are based on our commodities. Yeah, yeah... I sound like some third-year poli-sci brat preaching about tha man but whatever, this is beyond all that crap. I don't care if you think I'm a lefty pinko commie hippy, if that's what you call people who care about shit then fine. Sure I love writing about music and stuff, but deep down inside I know we can't possobly continue the pace of our consumption forever. And I don't know if Buy Nothing Day is going to change anyone's ways but its fun. Last year I didn't do much, but this year I think I'm going to panhandle for a 80gig iPod.

* The first BND was organized in Vancouver in September 1992, an idea by artist Ted Dave, as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.
* In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, which is the busiest shopping pre-Christmas weekend in the US. Outside of North America, BND is usually celebrated on the following Saturday.
* Despite controversies, Adbusters managed to advertise BND on CNN, but many other major TV networks declined to air their ads.
* Soon, campaigns started appearing in US, UK, Israel, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway. Participation now spans over 65 nations.

[3] Shopping and consumption facts:
* Per capita consumption in the U.S. has risen 45 per cent in the last 20 years.
* Although people today are, on average, four-and-a-half times richer than our great-grandparents were at the turn of the century, Americans report feeling "significantly less well off" than in 1958.
* A recent article in New Scientist featured research suggesting that the more consumer goods you have the more you think you need to make you happy. Happiness through consumption is always out of reach (New Scientist, 4th October 2003, Vol.180, Issue 2415, p44. Available online after registering at www.newscientist.co.uk).

Reader Reviews and Comments

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Wow. I didn't realize BND was started in Vancouver. That's pretty cool.

Does anyone at Beyond Robson realize that you're up for Canadian Blog Awards in several categories? This is one of the few blogs that doesn't seem to be encouraging its readers to vote for it.

Posted by: Chris at November 21, 2006 8:37 PM | Quote Comment

Buy Nothing Day 2006 is sandwiched between two reclaim the streets events - the November Critical Mass ride and You Never Bike Alone and the premiere (one-off) screening of feature-length documentary You Never Bike Alone which looks at the past successes and challenges faced in making Vancouver a more cycle-friendly city. The movie includes a Buy Nothing CM ride in 1998 which turned out to be a turning point in the way the rides are policed.

More at:

www.youneverbikealone.com

Posted by: youneverbikealone at November 21, 2006 9:11 PM | Quote Comment

To view the press release from which all these facts came, visit http://adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/view.php?id=315

Posted by: Jenny at November 21, 2006 9:34 PM | Quote Comment

that movie looks cool.

Posted by: sean orr at November 21, 2006 9:36 PM | Quote Comment

Very ambitious to have the U.S. BND on the busiest shopping day of the year (day after Thanksgiving). I'm off work tomorrow so maybe I'll actually have a go at not buying anything... just lock myself indoors :p

Posted by: Rebecca at November 22, 2006 7:07 AM | Quote Comment

I've always wanted to experience what panhandling feels like.

Posted by: ariadna at November 22, 2006 5:10 PM | Quote Comment

BND just preaches to the choir when it's placed on Black Friday -- the biggest sale day (cheapest to buy) of the year for electronics. How is the voracious NA consumer supposed to dislodge a long-entrenched, and economically beneficial habit with something from a non-mainstream culture that uses language and tactics unfamiliar to the marketing-saturated average consumer? ... ....

You want the average mainstreamer to cut back on consumption? Do what big corporations do when they want you to change your behaviour... Introduce the concept in an easy-to-adopt form, like a day that's easy to not buy anything. Then increase it to three days, then a week. Then move that week somewhere else, or make it two weeks, then maybe a month. Rinse the message clean of any anti-this or fight-the-Man message, and make it a positive thing for the individual. Use some basic marketing skillz, dammit!

Posted by: Exto at November 23, 2006 8:46 AM | Quote Comment

BND for me has usually consisted of going to malls and yelling at people.

Or going up to people in stores/fast-food places and ask the questions people dont want you to. EG. "dont you feel bad buying cloths made by children in sweatshop conditions? Why do you feel its necessary to drive that Hummer? What about everyone else? dont you feel bad making your child an obesity statistic?

shit like that.

MAKE EM SWEAT

Posted by: jeff h at November 23, 2006 9:08 AM | Quote Comment

... or it'll make them want to do exactly what you're badgering them to not do, just to spite you.

Posted by: Jeff

at November 23, 2006 10:04 AM | Quote Comment

@ jeff h: That kind of attitude is more about sustaining a masturbatory anti-establishment attitude, than it is about eliciting real, voluntary change. You're hurting the cause more than you're helping.

Posted by: alby at November 23, 2006 10:06 AM | Quote Comment

Buy Nothing day is a stale idea that has proven to do nothing. It's a make belief project for lefty progressive people of North Atlantic plutocracies to feel good about their values and the derivative identities. oooh look at me, I'm so conscious, I celebrate Buy Nothing Day.

if you don't organize yourself for meaningful direct and challenging political work on the social political structures that allow a consumer society to sustain itself, none of these Adbusters initiated carnivals really mean anything at the end of the day. This kind of campaign is only effective if there are political forces out there who are able to capitalize on such campaigns and change the actual policies.

If you don't believe me, just look at the track record of this campaign. How many people / stores has this campaign been able to attract? How many people actually stop and think about the consumerist lives we live as a result and change their lives? How many people don't end up shopping twice the next day?

We started celebrating and joining it (with Antisocial) as the only two stores in the world who actually prevented their customers from shopping that day. We closed shop for 4 years in a row and we may still be closed tomorrow, but it has more to do with how I feel tomorrow morning, not my illusions about affecting real social change through a one day a year event.

Posted by: NEVER AGAIN! at November 23, 2006 10:25 AM | Quote Comment

Change happens on a two pronged level, you know that: "the changes need to be made BOTH on a personal level AND from above. We need to put people in charge who think like us, people who won't go behind our back and resell everything to the banks and the corporations."

How do you track the success of BND? Is someone counting? Is the idea to affect numbers? Or is it to build awareness? Plant the seed? Does it puport to solve the world's problems alone?

Posted by: Sean orr at November 23, 2006 3:18 PM | Quote Comment