Buy Nothing Day is a protest against buying too many things. In North America, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Sweden, the event happens the day after U.S. Thanksgiving, at the same time as Black Friday. In other places, it takes place the next day, which is also the last Saturday of November.

The idea was created by artist Ted Dave and promoted by the magazine and nonprofit group Adbusters. Buy Nothing Day asks people to avoid shopping for one day. People who take part may do activities that oppose consumerism or help others, such as giving away winter coats or walking through stores. Some activists have made Buy Nothing Day last the whole Christmas shopping season. By 2001, the event was celebrated in more than 35 countries. In the late 1990s, Adbusters made a TV ad to promote Buy Nothing Day in the United States, but most TV stations did not show it. Some people, especially business groups, have said the event harms the economy.

History

The holiday was created by Canadian artist Ted Dave. A journalist named Joe Sommerlad from The Independent found that the idea came from a 1899 book called The Theory of the Leisure Class, which said that consumerism was a leftover from the feudal era and should be stopped. Soon after, a Canadian magazine and nonprofit group called Adbusters started promoting the day. It then spread to the United States and later to other countries around the world. The day was first celebrated in Japan in 1999, and by 2001, it was observed in 35 countries globally.

The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Canada in September 1992 as a time for society to think about the problem of buying too much. In 1997, the event was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, a day also known as "Black Friday," which is one of the busiest shopping days in the United States.

Activities

Beginning in the 1990s, Adbusters readers started participating in culture jamming activities on Buy Nothing Day. These activities aimed to raise awareness about overconsumption through various actions:

• Credit card cutting parties
• Handing out flyers: People gathered in busy city areas to distribute flyers, explaining the movement and its message against consumerism
• Forming long lines of people pushing empty shopping carts around stores (called "Whirly-Mart" by Adbusters)
• Buy Nothing Coat Exchange: In four states, including Utah, winter coat exchange programs are held as an alternative to Black Friday shopping
• Walking through streets or malls in zombie makeup

In the 1990s, Adbusters created a commercial to promote Buy Nothing Day. The ad showed North Americans as a belching pig to represent their overconsumption. It also compared North American consumption levels to those in Mexico, China, and India. The ad included the phrase, "A world that could die because of the way we North Americans live." However, Adbusters had trouble getting the ad to air. MTV, ABC, CBS, and NBC refused to show it. Only CNN and some local stations agreed to broadcast the ad. In 1997, CBS explained its refusal by referencing "the current economic policy in the United States." Kalle Lasn, a co-founder of Adbusters, questioned why MTV was willing to air gangsta rap and sexualized videos but not the ad. In 2001, Rob Walker, a Slate advertising critic, suggested Adbusters should not change its beliefs after the September 11 attacks but should consider creating a new ad, especially because of the phrase "A world that could die."

Buy Nothing Christmas

Buy Nothing Christmas began informally in 1968 when Ellie Clark and her family chose not to participate in the commercial aspects of Christmas. Later, a movement was formed to expand Adbusters' Buy Nothing Day to cover the entire Christmas season. Buy Nothing Christmas became an official event in 2001 when a small group of Canadian Mennonites created a website and named the movement. In 2011, Adbusters changed the event's name to Occupy Xmas, which was inspired by the Occupy movement.

Buy Nothing Day was first connected to Adbusters' Buy Nothing Christmas campaign. Soon after, Lauren Bercovitch, who worked as a production manager at Adbusters Media Foundation, supported the ideas of Occupy Xmas, encouraging people to "buy locally—spend money in their own communities or make their own Christmas gifts." Earlier, the messages of Occupy Xmas and Occupy Christmas were different: Occupy Xmas promoted a "Buy Nothing Christmas," while Occupy Christmas focused on supporting local economies, artists, and craftspeople during the holidays. Combining these ideas created a movement where Buy Nothing Day started a season of supporting local communities and families. In 2006, Adbusters editor Kalle Lasn reported that the holiday was celebrated in more than 65 countries worldwide.

Opposition

In 2001, after the September 11 attacks, Adbusters faced more opposition to Buy Nothing Day, as some Americans believed that consumerism was important for helping the U.S. economy recover. In 2002, the president of the Maryland Retailers' Association said that people who supported Buy Nothing Day should "get in the holiday spirit" and warned that their actions might harm retail workers financially. That same year, the director of communications for the National Association of Manufacturers called Buy Nothing Day "a very bad idea" and said it was "a protest against modernity." In 2012, Andrew Simms wrote an article in The Guardian stating that movements focused on not buying things often fail and that the economy was already struggling because of low demand. Instead, he suggested people should buy higher-quality goods.

In popular culture

An English alternative rock band named Chumbawamba created a song called "Buy Nothing Day" for their 2004 album Un. A critic from AllMusic named Johnny Loftus described the song as supporting Adbusters' movement. Another AllMusic critic, Chris Nickson, described the song as thinking about greed. In 2019, actress Shailene Woodley tweeted her support for the holiday.