Ask Blue_Nose

I ran across a poster outside my office today encouraging me to 'Celebrate Buy Nothing Day', in what I would learn from the "Adbusters" website is an attempt to raise awareness of North America's rampant consumerism. I guess I've heard about this other years without much consideration, but I had no idea how seriously this endeavour is pursued around the world.

If you didn't know, "Buy Nothing Day" is this Friday, and is held every year to draw attention to the consumerism that's going to destroy the world, one Nike shoe at a time.

If you haven't guessed from the title, I'm skeptical of its effectiveness.

There are two types of people that will buy nothing this Friday:

1) people with no money
2) people with enough money to stock up on everything they need the day before

Those in the first group aren't likely willing participants, but those from the second aren't exactly making a huge sacrifice, either. The people engaged in this ridiculous exercise are fools to think they've proven anything by planning a single day of no purchases months in advance. I've probably been engaged in dozens of "buy nothing" days this year by chance, so what's the point of planning another?

"Ah, but Daniel, the point is only to raise awareness of the real issues" Okay, fine - but why aren't these supposedly enlightened consumer activists telling people the real story, and treating consumers like adults? Why resort to stupid campaigns and publicity stunts in addressing a serious issue?

I had to laugh when I read that their television advertisement was rejected by MTV. Apparently the hypocrisy of asking corporate media to support a campaign that openly promotes the rejection of corporate media wasn't lost on the folks at MTV, who've since been labelled "corporate censors" by the "culture jamming" Adbusters.

If only it were a simple and individual activity, I wouldn't mind it so much. However, not only do activists recommend buying nothing this Friday, but they suggest others take an active role in making shopping even more miserable than they already believe it to be; their website include a variety of suggestions as to how you can harass shoppers on any day of the year, from purposely obstructing isles with empty carts to dressing up like zombies and even Jesus, for no apparent reason other than to attract attention and annoy people. Their "culture shop" even sell a keychain that will shut off any television, just in case you happen to feel that the owners of a particular establishment made an unacceptable decision in offering televisions to its patrons.

The only explanation I can come up with as to why this needs to happen is that the good folks at adbusters and their followers think we're all too stupid to realize that shopping can be frustrating, so they're going to make it even more frustrating by intentionally being a nuisance. They don't think there's any value or in outwardly promoting the benefits of ethical/local/environmentally-friendly consumption with these events, and think it's best to dumb it down for the masses to the most simplistic notion possible. They gain publicity from their silly little "pranks", and cry censorship when shopping mall security guards tell them to stop bothering innocent shoppers.

So what we end up with is a pointless exercise devoid of any substantial goals or constructive results that strives to increase the frustration of the activity they claim is too frustrating.

Happy Christmas shopping, everybody. I'm hoping to get a lot of mine done this Friday.