National Buy Nothing Day

Today is National Buy Nothing Day.

National Buy Nothing Day one of the campaigns promoted by Adbusters. Adbusters is a media organization and magazine that supports social activism aimed at combating the destructive forces inherent in capitalism. Much of this effort is a focused on waging "meme warfare" against mindless consumerism. National Buy Nothing Day is an example of this.

In an attempt to push back on the frantic shopping going on today--Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, a day my preacher described as "the most dangerous day of the year for Christians"--National Buy Nothing Day goes against the flow by asking participants to opt out of the mass consumerism. Stay away from the malls, Walmarts, and department stores.

And if you want to do more than opt out Adbusters encourages a variety of culture jamming activities. A list of activities from Wikipedia that people have done for National Buy Nothing Day:

• Credit card cut up: Participants stand in a shopping mall, shopping center, or store with a pair of scissors and a poster that advertises help for people who want to put an end to mounting debt and extortionate interest rates with one simple cut.
• Zombie walk: Participant "zombies" wander around shopping malls or other consumer havens with a blank stare. When asked what they are doing participants describe Buy Nothing Day.
• Whirl-mart: Participants silently steer their shopping carts around a shopping mall or store in a long, baffling conga line without putting anything in the carts or actually making any purchases.
• Wildcat General Strike: A strategy used for the 2009 Buy Nothing Day where participants not only do not buy anything for twenty-four hours but also keep their lights, televisions, computers and other non-essential appliances turned off, their cars parked, and their phones turned off or unplugged from sunrise to sunset.
• Buy Nothing Day hike: Rather than celebrating consumerism by shopping, participants celebrate The Earth and nature.

Beyond campaigns like National Buy Nothing Day Adbusters is also a resource for subvertising, another example of their culture jamming, meme warfare with capitalism, materialism, and consumerism. Some examples of Adbusters subversive advertising:

Homo Shopus: The final stage in our evolution.

Escape!

The Corporate American Flag

 More of this subversive advertising can be found here at the Adbusters site.

And you can actually buy the Corporate American Flag to carry or fly here.