Buy Nothing Day!

People seem to think the products and brands they own create their identity. As the picture above states you are not what you buy – products are merely things we have in our life. Only you can decide who you are, and not by the things you associate yourself with. Products can help our lives by making it easier to do certain activities. Such as a phone to communicate, or a jacket to keep you warm. Do we really need that production line – the same product in every colour? Why are we wasting our money on something that will only provide short-term happiness? Products create clutter and confusion to a market when there was the norm and the few choices that we relied on to survive. Why do we buy things when we probably don’t even need/will use them. For example, I have plenty of never worn clothes in my closet. Will I wear them? Probably not. Was it a waste of money? Yes. What’s going to happen to them? They’ll probably sit there until I throw them out. Advertisers manipulate us to feel like we NEED their product through their fancy, or easier lifestyle created through an ad. They want us to consume, and consume some more so at the end of their day their company is making profits and fueling a capitalist society.

International Buy Nothing Day started in Vancouver, Canada in 1992 by social activists. Since then, the campaign has run each year during the end of November. The campaign is an international day of protest against consumerism, education people about our unnecessary over consumption of goods. The day was promoted in Adbusters magazine, which is an anti-consumerist publication.

The day is participated in more than 40 countries.

Adbusters believes it isn’t about changing habits for one day, but about making a lifestyle change to consume less and produce less waste.

Kalle Lasn, brainchild of the campaign and avid culture jammer said “we [north americans] are the most voracious consumers in the world … A world … could die because of the way we North Americans live. Give it a rest. November 24 is Buy Nothing Day.”

Why in America and not Australia?

My ongoing question is the difference between the consumerist culture of North America and Australia, as well as why the term ‘culture jam’ is not commonly used here (in Australia). This blog will be in two parts. The next to follow shortly.

The term ‘culture jamming’ was coined in 1984 by American West Coast-based performance/activist group Negativland to describe a variety of activities. These include communication tactics as the alteration of corporate advertisements by the Billboard Liberation Front, the parody of corporate and nongovernmental organization (NGO) websites by the Yes Men, and the appropriation of consumer goods through shoplifting and rebranding by Yomano. Most of these activities are chronicled in the magazine, Adbusters.

For a term that has existed for nearly 30 years, it’s only something I’ve (an Australian) learnt about in the past 12 months! Interesting enough, I learnt about this term whilst studying an advertising course in North America. It shows that in today’s society, terms like these are embedded into North American curriculums as an everyday topic, acknowledging the negative impacts of advertising that American consumers seem to be aware of. Whilst my experience at an Australian university has only taught me the positive sides of advertising (to an agency/company) – increasing sales, product awareness/market share etc. But why is this?

Are Australians narrow-minded to think about what advertising does to us? Or is it that there is no need to respond?  (We realise what advertisements to listen to and not) and have control to what we believe. Of course I may be a bit biased, as deep down I’ll always picture North America as a consumer culture where products and brands heavily define how people identify themselves.

But again, this brings me to the point that why teach courses about culture jamming in North America (disguised as an innocent advertising class)? I’ll admit my professor was a bit, okay well, very anti-capitalist and ‘out there’. But she helped us all (the class) open our minds and think about what advertising meant to us, and to question everything we see. We shouldn’t take in every single message that comes our way as they’re one-sided and leave no room for information processing.

It wasn’t until this class, where I myself was enlightened and realised “wow, so what I’ve been taught back home doesn’t take into consideration how it affects consumer culture and influences peoples’ identities”. It was almost disheartening to learn as well, after 2.5yrs of learning how to plan/create an ad/campaign can ultimately mean nothing to culture jamming. I don’t think it’s a waste of time to learn one side or the other of advertising, but find it intriguing that Australia was pro, and this particular North American class was anti advertising in the classroom. This itself can appear as influencing how these cultures look at ads and the power they hold. As well as teaching vital tools (of both sides to ads) that us, as communicators should be aware of.

As previously referenced, Carly Stasko, a culture jammer said “I don’t condone this [jamming], but kids should know about it… not necessarily be encouraged to do it, but knowledge is power”.