Buy Nothing Day does not have the political teeth it needs to be an effective message to the public. Buy Nothing Day was originally conceived by activist Ted Dave and promoted by Adbusters out of Vancouver, Canada to counter act the hyperbolic spending spree called Black Friday. I think Buy Nothing Day is a ground breaking idea, but I also believe our way of thinking about consumption can shift further if it is a message more people can identify with.
This resistance to corporations raking in gobs a cash on a "buy everything day" allured by items discounted in price, can have much more prowess, if it was a Buy Local/Green Day or month for that matter. And I believe this message would be simple to promote and highly popularized within the media. Sure Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving holiday, stirs a feeding frenzy of shoppers to the malls, but why not divert this impulsive "affluenza" energy to the local ma and pops stores, rather than the feeding the glutton global economy, bursting at the seams of recession.
This is not a political jab, to discount the idea of not shopping, but most people aren’t going to stay home and not shop because someone else says so. Practicing absence on this day is about as extreme as evangelicals saying no to sex before marriage. What we need to emphasize is certainly less consumption and rethinking our nervous twitching of buying habits, especially among the top 20% of the wealthiest.
The mainstream media are major players spinning the hype for compulsive buying without much thought for the little guy, or that family owned shop, or how shopping at giant corporate companies continues to exploit workers and fuel more sweatshops. This is where local media and public service stations can make a real impact, by encouraging people who have the crave or some circumstances need to shop, to reconsider staying within their local economy, shopping at stores that can be just a stroll away. (About 70% of the dollar never leaves the neighborhood when someone ones making the choice to shop at a ma and pa store.) And to take this a step further buy from local companies or businesses that our more energy efficient, promote good health, or other wise apply environmentally friendly practices.
The educational and new marketing challenge is to set the table for rethinking, how and what we buy. And let’s do this responsibility with the state of the earth in mind, while stimulating our local economy. Let’s make Thanksgiving through Christmas holiday about a Buy Local/Green Month.