From: "Del" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 08:27:14 +1100 OUR CONSUMER CULTURE IS OUT OF CONTROL. Once, we shopped to buy what we needed, period. Now that we don't need much, we shop for other reasons: to impress each other, to fill a void, to kill time. A mere 20% of the earth's population uses 80% of its natural resources. Our overconsumption is killing the planet. BUY NOTHING DAY is a simple idea with deep implications. It forces us to think about the "shop-till-you-drop" imperative and its effects on the rest of the world. When you buy nothing on November 26th, enjoy a break from the shopping frenzy. Relish your power as a consumer to change the economic environment. HISTORY OF BND Since its launch in the Pacific Northwest seven years ago, Buy Nothing Day has grown into a worldwide celebration of consumer awareness and simple living. Observed on the day after US Thanksgiving -- America's busiest shopping day of the year -- the campaign has sparked debate, radio talk shows, TV news items and newspaper headlines in 15 countries. Last year, an estimated one million people made a pact with themselves and joined the consumer fast for 24 hours. The ways in which people marked the event worldwide were as diverse as the participants themselves. Many played with the icons of our consumer landscape by taking off on mock shopping sprees, by hawking "hope" and "happiness," or simply by opening up shop and selling nothing. The daredevils of the Ruckus Society, a California-based direct action group, dropped a boxcar-sized banner ridiculing overconsumption smack in the middle of the Mall of America. Other more down-to-earth types created and distributed the Gift Exemption Voucher -- a polite way of saying, Let's not get each other anything this year, out of principle. In Seattle, helpful Buy Nothing Day celebrants offered a credit-card cut-up service outside a downtown mall. In America, Buy Nothing Day played out in some of the nation's last remaining public spaces -- its malls. Costumed groups of revelers managed to slip in and stay long enough to set up tables and suggest alternatives to heavy holiday spending such as giving to charity. Spend time with loved ones rather than money on them, was the message. Ultimately, security guards grew wise to the nature of these non-consumer activities and most BND crews were asked to leave. Buy Nothing Day just wouldn't be the same if the networks didn't reject our opt-not-to-shop TV uncommercial. Every season, we approach ABC, CBS and NBC to air the spot, and every year they refuse us -- claiming our ad asking people not to buy anything threatens "the current economic policy in the United States." CNN Headline News, however, has taken our money and has aired the spot after their "Dollars and Sense" program since 1996. Most constitutional-law experts aren't bothered by the networks' refusal of the spot, according to Robert Berner in The Wall Street Journal. Networks aren't under any legal obligation to air it. But as Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe remarked, "At least the networks make it clear who butters their bread." Unlike the networks, public access TV stations are often happy to air the Buy Nothing Day uncommercial and many will do so for free. Culture Jammers who manage to secure airtime can contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and we'll send you a free broadcast-quality version of the spot. This turn-of-the-millennium finds our world poised between a sustainable rebirth and the final sale of its assets. Sensing the urgency of the moment, many have chosen to cast their vote against a "global economy" that's running us all out of our resources. Whatever your motivations for "buying nothing," joining the campaign is a gesture of consumer sovereignty that won't go unnoticed. The shining hope for a revolution in human consciousness lies in the actions of everyday people. So go ahead -- take the plunge! Find out what it feels like to curb the shopping impulse for a day, and let others know what you discover. You may just see the world in a new way. (from the adbuster website http://adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd/index.html ) -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
