Buy Nothing Day!

To buy, or not to buy, that is the question.

Saturday November 24h 2007 is Buy Nothing Day (UK), It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they

spend a day without spending!


This year our message is clear, shop less - live more!

Everything we buy has an impact on our planet. Buy Nothing Day highlights the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism. The developed countries - only 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage and unfair distribution of wealth.

As consumers we need to question the products we buy and challenge the companies who produce them. What are the true risks to the environment and developing countries? The argument is infinite - while it continues we should be looking for simple solutions - Buy Nothing Day is a good place to start.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY!

This year, Buy Nothing Day will be biggest 24-hour moratorium against consumerism ever. People in around the UK will make a pact with themselves to take a break from shopping as a personal experiment or public statement and the best thing is - IT'S FREE!!!

Of course, Buy Nothing Day isn't about changing your lifestyle for just one day - we want it to be a lasting relationship with you consumer conscience - maybe a life changing experience? We want people to make a commitment to consuming less, recycling more and challenging companies to clean up and be fair. The supermarket or shopping mall might offer great choice, but this shouldn't be at the cost of the environment or developing countries.

Tell all your friends about Buy Nothing Day, send them a POSTCARD, the quickest way to spread the word! DOWNLOAD the Buy Nothing Day poster - make lots of copies, put them up at school, in windows, around workplace and your town. Print out the leaflet and hand them out and don't forget Buy Nothing Day is your day off from shopping - so have fun!!!


Buy Nothing Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Buy Nothing Day is an informal day of protest against consumerism observed by social activists. In 2007, Buy Nothing Day falls on November 23rd in North America and November 24th internationally.[1]. It was founded by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by the Canadian Adbusters magazine.
The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Vancouver in September of 1992 "as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption"[2]. In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, which is one of the top 10 busiest shopping days in the United States. Outside of North America, Buy Nothing Day is celebrated on the following Saturday. Despite controversies, Adbusters managed to advertise Buy Nothing Day on CNN, but many other major television networks declined to air their ads[3]. Soon, campaigns started appearing in United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway. Participation now includes more than 65 nations.[4]
While critics of the day charge that Buy Nothing Day simply causes participants to buy the next day[5], Adbusters states that it "isn't just about changing your habits for one day" but "about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste".[6]

After seeing all these articles, why we too adopt this. Because we are having 'akshya thiruthiya day' to buy gold and in North India they buy some gold on a day before Deepavali I think. So in India we are not having this day.
Buy Nothing Day!
Why dont we celeberate this ? Think and try. Have fun. All the best. I am going to try this on 24th November. What about you?