Buy Nothing Day

Buy Nothing Day is an activist movement taking place on November 28th across North America, and on the 29th at an international level. For the duration of 24 hours, participants are expected to “detox from consumerism” by not shopping. It is considered to be the “largest 24 hour moratorium against consumerism.” The event is perceived as a financial break from consumerism, an experiment and a public statement against mass consumption (Buy Nothing Day UK, 2008).

With the highly anticipated Holiday shopping season, groups of anti-shopping activists have gathered to accomplish their goals. One of their goals is to gather as many individuals as possible to participate in a 24 hour suspension of shopping against the destructive power of advertisements and corporations, which try to persuade individuals to indulge in consumerism (Revkin, 2008). Individuals can participate in a variety of activities that protest consumerism. Whirl-Mart is an activity in which an individual, followed by a congo line of participants, can push a shopping cart without purchasing anything in the store. Another activity is the credit card cut up, in which individuals can place an end to the increasing interest rates and debt through a simple cut (Buy Nothing Day, 2008).

In terms of consumption, the movement targets the wealthiest 1 billion people on the globe, who are the privileged 20 percent that consume 80 percent of the goods and services in the marketplace (Revkin, 2008). However, as I stated above the movement encourages individuals of all social classes to collectively join and protest against consumerism. The scale of the protests can be large as witnessed in Reverend Billy’s “What would Jesus buy?” trailer, or small like joining a facebook group or participating in Whirl-Mart activities with your friends.

“Buy Nothing Day.” 20 Nov. 2008 <http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd>.
“Buy Nothing Day UK.” 20 Nov. 2008 <http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/#>.
Revkin, C., Andrew. “A Fresh Advertising Pitch: Buy Nothing.” 20 Nov. 2008 <http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/a-fresh-advertising-pitch-buy-nothing/>.