Buy Nothing Day was created in Vancouver in September 1992. It was originally organized to show people the power consumerism has upon the population as well how we do not need to rely on money to get us through the day. It was first advertised nationally by Adbusters on CNN, though many other companies refused to participate. What started out as a small protest against overconsumption has spiraled into a world event, over 65 countries in the world participating.
I decided to participate in Buy Nothing Day last year only to find out I bought everything that I needed or wanted the day after. So is Buy Nothing Day really an effective solution for promoting overconsumption? I think the day is already pointing out a well known fact that people are bombarded with advertisements that make them want to buy products. I don’t see the point in having a day of non-consumption when the next day I know I will be consuming again. I cannot find a reasonable way to effectively get the point of overconsumption across. At first I started thinking that there should be some sort of “Buy Nothing Week” but then people would stock up on what they believe they’ll need in order to not spend money for a week, so that cancels out.
I also feel people need to take advantage that they have money, unlike many people in the world that do not. I imagine the poverty-stricken countries would love to be able to spend $25 on a shirt but cannot, so why do we deny ourselves the right to purchase simply for the sake of “awareness”. People are too concerned with being apprehensively enlightened by their constant feeble attempts of helping the world instead of appreciating what we have and not being critical. People should not need one day of the year to remind them that the public spends far too much money on their wants but instead be constantly aware of the situation and try to control their spending. We cannot escape advertising so I don’t see the point in trying to fight it.
bibliography
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd
http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/
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