Buy Nothing Day 1999:
Buying nothing around the world

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Source: The Courier (Centennial College)
By Romana King

TORONTO (CUP), November 29 - In 1992 Kalle Lasn, anti-consumerism activist and the originator of Adbusters Magazine, began a grassroots campaign against Christmas time commercialism. His plan was to attack North American over-spending one shopping day at time.

The result was the beginning of International Buy Nothing Day, whose purpose is to raise consciousness about the grave costs our consumer culture had on people and the environment, by convincing people to abstain from shopping for just one day.

Lasn, who was a former advertising executive, began his attack on consumerism with a 30-second television commercial. His simple message was conveyed by an animated pig superimposed on a map of North America.

Smacking its lips, the pig said, "The average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person, and 30 times more than a person from India . . . Give it a rest."

In an effort to educate the public and promote Buy Nothing Day, Lasn tried to sell the 30-second spot to the major networks.

They wouldn't take his money.

In fact Westinghouse Electric Corporations's CBS, in a letter rejecting the commercial, went as far as saying that Buy Nothing Day is, "in opposition to the current economic policy in the United States."

This current economic policy includes an advertising budget for Madison Avenue in 1998 of $285.2-billion aimed at convincing Americans to consume - a sum higher than the aggregate gross domestic product of sub-Saharan Africa.

The policy supports the inequities throughout the world, including the fact that 80 per cent of the world's population live in developing countries, though their share of the world trade is only 17 per cent. A child dies every 24 seconds as a result of poverty - a total of 36,000 a day.

Seven years later, the 24-hour moratorium on shopping that is Buy Nothing Day is celebrated by tens of thousands of citizens in over 30 countries. From Washington D.C. to Edmonton, Alberta to Boston, Massachusetts to Finland, students, businesses, journalists and employees are putting down their wallets and picking up this cause.

Editor and public relations professional Clark Scheffy of Berkeley, California got to a point where he wanted to say something about the wastefulness of nations.

"I don't expect people to listen to what I'm saying on Friday the 26th and then get back into their cars or the train and head home actually buying nothing," he said. "But I do hope that they think about what they purchase."

In Edmonton a local store has participated in Buy Nothing Day since 1992.

Earth's General Store manager Michael Kalmanovitch remembers how every year offered them a chance to help the consumer understand the importance of ethical shopping.

"The first year the local Adbusters group came into the store and ran the 'uncommercials' on the little TV set and offered people free popcorn," recalled Kalmanovitch.

"The store staff would inform people that it was International Buy Nothing Day and that we would appreciate it if they didn't buy anything from us, or any other store, this day."

Dick Verheul, a participant of Omslag, a Dutch workshop on sustainable development, is helping to spread the message in over 25 cities across Holland. Along with street activities, such as handing out flyers and performing mini-plays, supporters created Konsuminderkrant, a newspaper on consuming less that is available in all public libraries.

In Finland there are local actions in 10 different towns around the country. Elina Mikola, who lives in the Finnish town of Tampere, is participating in Buy Nothing Day protest for her fourth year and this year she helped create the country's first Buy Nothing Day television advertisement.

"It was the easiest way to get our message through," she wrote in an email.

She wants consumers to learn the Buy Nothing Day message in a positive manner. This was the motivation behind the information desks, which are set up near local malls, looking a little bit like a carnival.

"We want people to see that 'hey, we are not shopping, but having a great time!'" she said. "Our slogan is Buy Nothing - avoid stress, save your money and save the world."

In San Francisco Samir Bitar is helping to organize the "calls to action."

"We plan to hand a few banners from a freeway overpass that read, 'When you buy, who pays?' and 'Shopping is costing us our planet'," revealed Bitar.

The San Francisco protesters also plan to hand out 'sprawl mart' flyers, which attack Wal Mart's multinational business practices, to shoppers in Union Square.

"I don't envision a 'picket and protest' energy," said Bitar. "I believe that ends up alienating our intended target."

In New Zealand activists are setting up a shop-free zone with a tent and chairs around the central business district and around the central city mall.

"It's for people to take some time out, to come and chat," writes Stu the New Zealand co-ordinator for Buy Nothing Day.

Now organizing for his fourth year, Stu is pleasantly surprised by the positive response of local politicians and businesses. The city council gave the activists a permit to protest and he was able to find a printer to create postcards and flyers on Buy Nothing Day.

"Both were already aware of the day and supportive of the ideas behind it," said Sut.

Caio Lazzuri is an advertising student in Brazil who got active because of his belief that, "...there's something killing the world like a cancer-economic growth."

He writes that the one day of no shopping helps us all to see how mindless we become through advertisements and consumerism, especially third world countries such as Brazil "which is treated like a kitchen of the United States."

"There's a hope of a healthy way of living and I'm looking for it. That's all I want, to keep alive, to keep the planet alive," mused Lazzuri

For Jennifer Hefferman, a senior at the University of Michigan, the question she wants to ask is "how much is enough?"

She hopes to convey the message of sustainable spending by provoking thought through flyers and street theatre.

Though she's pleased that this message is finally getting out - she says a professor actually taught the class about Buy Nothing Day last year in university - she is concerned with how personally some people take Buy Nothing Day.

"Apparently I'm anti-American," she writes. "I should be out there charging past my credit limit for the sake of America . . . what a load of crap this is."

For Samantha Ellis, a student at International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, the day is a chance to reconnect with Mother Earth.

"I was actually thinking of having a day in nature, to reconnect with simple living and the natural world by taking a hike in the woods." As a resident student at her university she feels somewhat disconnected from the local community, which has led her to focus her attention on her own student community.

She says that the hike in the woods would offer these students a chance to appreciate the natural environment by paying more attention to it as well as collecting articles for homemade gifts.

"I was thinking of having a craft day perhaps with natural materials we collected on the hike to make gifts for the holidays instead of buying them. It will be a day to spend appreciating nature, community, friends and our creative selves."

In Pravda, local journalist Tomas Bella wrote an article for the second biggest daily newspaper in Slovakia on Buy Nothing Day with the hopes that the message will get out.

Americans Anna White and Sean Sheehan are conducting one of the more inspired protests. In a press release they prepared they used the popular icon, Santa Claus, to spread the Buy Nothing Day message.

According White and Sheehan, Santa's sleigh will visit Washington D.C., Baltimore, Denver and Seattle on Friday November 26, 1999 to spread the word on Buy Nothing Day.

The two activists decided to use Santa Claus because he is a popular cultural icon that has been taken over by malls and advertisers to promote their merchandise.

"The holidays are a microcosm of a larger problem in our society - excessive consumption," writes White. "This is threatening our quality of life and the planet's ecosystem. If we want a better future for generations, we must drastically wake up to reality and change our consumption patterns."

Write adds that the United States is a model that most of the world aspires to. But if every country adopted this type of consumerism we would need four more planets the size of earth to match that standard of living.

"Clearly we [Americans] need to change," she writes. "The first step is to ask ourselves, what is enough?"

Shannon Croutch of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan believes that Buy Nothing Day is an effective method of getting shoppers to question their consumption, but she is concerned that people forget the message after the 26th passes.

"People tend to feel guilt-free if they have participated in an event such as Buy Nothing Day, but they often continue with their selfish lifestyles for the remaining 364 days of the year. It is essential that people realize that they must make the greatest effort possible every day of their lives."

Romana King
email:

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