(www.hustlerofculture.com)The media has a huge influence on overconsumption. Everyday, millions of people buy products that we do not need. Why would we waste money on a product that is useless to us? Everyday we are bombarded by advertisements. We constantly view internet ads and popups, radio ads, television commercials, print ads, billboards, posters, etc. It is impossible to live a day without seeing an advertisement. The media continually advertises products that influence us to spend our money. We are constantly persuaded to buy products through the media.
Buy Nothing Day was started by the Canadian not-for-profit magazine Adbusters, who explains that they are “concerned about the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces” (adbusters.com). The event raises awareness of overconsumption and challenges people to buy nothing for 24 hours. The website explains, “As the planet starts heating up, maybe it’s time to finally go cold turkey. Take the personal challenge by locking up your debit card, your credit cards, your money clip, and see what it feels like to opt out of consumer culture completely, even if only for 24 hours. Like the millions of people who have done this fast before you, you may be rewarded with a life-changing epiphany” (adbusters.org).
Over consumption is hurting our planet. In 1995, the United Nations Development Program found that “today’s consumption is undermining the environmental resource base. If the trends continue without change — not redistributing from high-income to low-income consumers, not shifting from polluting to cleaner goods and production technologies, not promoting goods that empower poor producers, not shifting priority from consumption for conspicuous display to meeting basic needs — today’s problems of consumption and human development will worsen” (www.globalissues.org). Overconsumption causes pollution and is depleting our earth’s resources. The earth can not keep up with the demand for products.
A recent video has been circulating the internet called Buy Nothing Day, Black Friday Protest. The video explains that “in 2007 over 65 million Americans shopped on Black Friday” (www.youtube.com). The video encourages you to reduce unnecessary spending, reinvest your time and money, rethink your lifestyle, reach out to those in need, recycle and promote sustainability, and recapture the essence of giving, not getting.
On November 28th, 2008, try something different. Try to buy nothing! Make that morning coffee at home, instead of buying it on the way to work. Bring a sandwich to work, instead of buying a lunch. Don’t be tempted, for at least one day, to buy a product when you see it in an ad. You have everything you need at home, you can easily go a day without buying anything. Even try something to help the environment. Take a quick shower and use less water, recycle that newspaper you read, or take public transit to work. On November 28th, 2008, my money, debit card, and credit card will be left at home. I pledge to buy nothing.
Work Cited
Buy Nothing Day: Black Friday Protest. 5 November 2008. Youtube. 25 November 2008.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zNwWrtVoCI]
Buy Nothing Day. 2008. Adbusters. 25 November 2008. [http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd].
Consumption and Consumerism. 3 September 2008. Global Issues. 25 November 2008
[http://www.globalissues.org/issue/235/consumption-and-consumerism]
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