Celebrate Buy Nothing Day:
Discover A Cure For Affluenza

OUR CONSUMER CULTURE IS ABSURD. We buy to feel good, we buy to impress each other. Our consumer culture is greedy. We in the affluent west -- only 20% of the world's population -- consume 80% of the natural resources.

Our consumer culture is tragic. As a result of our consumption, nature is dying. The shining hope for a revolution in human consciousness lies in the actions of everyday people.

Edward Abbey said, "Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul." So do something. For one day, on November 24… stop buying. And spread the word. Tell your friends. Challenge your family. Simplify your lifestyle.

CELEBRATE BUY NOTHING DAY

BUY NOTHING DAY is a simple idea with profound and far-reaching repercussions. It is the only environmental campaign in the world that directly confronts the issue of sustainable consumption in a way that the average citizen can grasp and understand, yet as political ideology, it challenges the very tenets of neoclassical economics and casts a hard light on our shop-til-you-drop culture and the methods we use to measure wealth and progress.

Since it was launched in the Pacific Northwest seven years ago, Buy Nothing Day has grown into a worldwide celebration of consumer awareness and simple living. The campaign has triggered debate, radio talk shows, TV news items and newspaper headlines in 15 countries.

CBS and NBC rejected the Buy Nothing Day TV uncommercial for broadcast. Evidently, an ad asking people not to buy anything is a threat to "the current economic policy in the United States." CNN, however, accepted the ad for broadcast -- the ad aired three times on CNN Headline News on the program, "Dollars and Sense," on Nov. 27th, 1997.

Last year, it is estimated that over one million people made a personal pact with themselves and joined the consumer fast for 24 hours. Some of our collaborators have conjured up ingenious ways to spread the Buy Nothing Day meme.

BUY NOTHING SHOPPING LIST

The Buy Nothing Day campaign in Seattle distributed this checklist to let shoppers evaluate things they were thinking of buying:

• Do I need it?

• How much will I use it?

• How many do I already have?

• How long will it last?

• Could I borrow it from
a friend or family member?

• Can I do without it?

• Am I able to clean, lubricate and/or maintain it myself?

• Am I willing to?

• Will I be able to repair it?

• Have I researched it to get the best quality for the best price?

• How will I dispose of it when I'm done using it?

• Are the resources that went into it renewable or nonrenewable?

• Is it made of recycled materials and is it recyclable?

• Is there anything I already own that I could substitute for it?

For more information on the Buy Nothing Day and the movement to limit the tragedy of consumer culture, contact Adbusters