Buy Nothing Day: 30 November

It’s never been easier to buy things. We can go online and order whatever we want whenever we want — but just because we can doesn’t mean we should. In late November, people all over the world participate in Buy Nothing Day, a day of protest against consumerism.   

Our culture, our planet

Buy Nothing Day first took place in Canada in September 1992. It was invented by Vancouver-based artist Ted Dave and promoted by Adbusters, the magazine and non-profit organisation who later organised the populist movement Occupy Wall Street. Buy Nothing Day was supported by activists who thought, said Adbusters magazine, that buying more than we need was polluting “our culture, our souls, our planet.”

The concept caught on in the US, and in 1997 Buy Nothing Day began to be celebrated on the day after Thanksgiving. This is the last Friday in November, which is known as Black Friday and is the biggest shopping day of the year in the US, and a major shopping day in many other countries. 

A controversial ad

In the 1990s, Adbusters produced a TV commercial to promote Buy Nothing Day. It depicted North America as a pig in a symbol of overconsumption, and cited statistics comparing North Americans’ consumption disfavourably to that of Mexico, China and India. The campaign used the slogan: “A world that could die because of the way we North Americans live.” 

Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, many TV networks in the US refused to air the ad. Many businesses have criticised Buy Nothing Day, saying that it is bad for the economy. 

What you can do!

Today, Buy Nothing Day is celebrated in about sixty-five countries. It is on the Friday after Thanksgiving in North America, the UK, Finland and Sweden, and on the Saturday in other countries. As well as not buying anything on the day, many people participate in other activities, such as giving away winter coats, cutting up credit cards, pushing empty shopping carts around stores and walking through malls with zombie makeup on to symbolise the mindlessness of consumerism. 

As well as Buy Nothing Day, you can also participate in the Buy Nothing Project. Started on Facebook in 2013 to help people save money and reduce waste, the project has groups all over the world who give away things they no longer need.