Buy Nothing Day

As we were disucussing culture jamming, I too found the topic particularly interesting. With this topic unlike others in the class, it takes a little research and thinking of examples to get more of a grip on what "culture jamming," actually means.

I knew i wanted to blog about this topic but was having trouble thinking about what to write about, so I went in researched the Adbusters website. We briefly discussed this magazine in class. I decided to go to the website to see what they were all about. As I was looking over their site, I clicked on the campaigns tab, and ran across the Buy Nothing Day campaign.

The American culture is a material culture. It amazes me how much time, research, and reporting is spent each year on the "holiday." Black Friday is a bigger deal than spending the day giving Thanks. People go to bed early and miss out on spending quality time with family so they can make it to the "big" sales the next day. News reporters replace good news with reports of this event. How many people are projected to buy, how many actually buy, where the best sales are, etc. Its sad really.

This campaign urges people to participate in Buy Nothing Day. Its a great idea I believe. It encourages people to stay at home with their families, buy less, buy local and provides many other ideas. People can go even further and go into the stores and ask things like "What would Jesus buy?" Other ideas can be found on the buynothingchrismas website.

I think you can be a culture jammer if you refuse to buy anything on November 25 when others are lining up at 3 a.m and pushing and shoving others as they search for gifts for their spoiled children. You are a culture jammer if you refuse to participate in Black Friday because you believe that this "holiday" is ruining the spirit of Christmas.