Buy Nothing Day
Welcome to our Buy Nothing Day page

Buy Nothing Day is an informal day of protest against consumerism observed by social activists. It was founded by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by the Canadian magazine, Adbusters. Participants refrain from purchasing anything for 24 hours in a concentrated display of consumer power. The event is intended to raise awareness of what many see as the wasteful consumption habits of First World countries. Activists may also participate in culture jamming activities like the Whirl-Mart and other forms of radical expression. The day is also used as a platform to protest materialism and bandwagon appeals.

The event described as Whirl-Mart occurs when people go into a big store (such as Wal-Mart, hence the name of this activity) to protest. They do this by pushing empty carts up and down the aisles. They do not say they are protesting, just that they are shopping. Sometimes they fill their carts up and abandon them.

In the United States and Canada, supporters demonstrate on the day after the American holiday of Thanksgiving. This day, often called "Black Friday" by activists, is the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States, as well as the official start of the winter holiday shopping season. Although this is not the busiest shopping day of the year in Canada, Buy Nothing Day is also scheduled there on that date as well, in order to synchronize events and maximize their economic impact. In other countries, the demonstrations occur a day later.

Critics of these protests and Buy Nothing Day have pointed out that consumers would simply just buy more the next day instead, rendering their protest pointless. This may be true, but those who participate in Buy Nothing Day at least have the satisfaction of feeling that they are taking some action against the vise grip of consumerism upon First World culture.

This page is based on a page from Wikipedia entitled Buy Nothing Day. You can find the page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Nothing_Day. Wikipedia is open source. That means anyone is free to use it and alter it as long as they credit the source. Wikipedia is not copyright, it is leftright. The Buy Nothing Day related text on this page is also leftright. You are free to use it as you like as long as you credit Aaron Teaches and Wikipedia for our authorship. This means that if you want to use this, you must include a statement crediting us and provide links to both Aaron Teaches and Wikipedia.