Black Friday by another name: Buy Nothing Day

If the idea of shopping on the day after Thanksgiving is about as appealing as a colonoscopy, you're not alone. Although many people know the Friday after turkey day as Black Friday — the day, traditionally, that retailers supposedly become profitable for the year — others have been celebrating the date as Buy Nothing Day since the early 1990s.

Among those promoting Buy Nothing Day is Adbusters magazine and performance artist Bill Talen, a.k.a. the Rev. Billy. Often accompanied by a gospel choir, Talen uses the histrionics of a televangelist in an effort to convert people to his anti-consumerist "Church of Stop Shopping." This year, he is holding a "Dance Your Debt Away" party in New York City on Friday for those who have resolved to keep the credit cards in their wallets. He has other ideas for how to spend the day besides heading to a big-box store.

Meanwhile, Adbusters is promoting events such as a "Credit Card Cut-Up," in which volunteers stand in a shopping mall with a pair of scissors and a sign offering a simple service: to put an end to high interest rates and mounting debt with one cut. They're also hoping to stage "Zombie Walks," in which the "cheerful dead" wander around malls, marveling at the blank, comatose expressions on the faces of shoppers. And if you do happen to be in a Toys R Us on Friday, beware the "Whirl-mart," in which 10 or so people silently push shopping carts around in a long, inexplicable conga line without ever actually buying anything.

Then again, encountering buy-nothing types in L.A. might be kind of tough. When we checked Adbusters' "event listing" site, the state-by-state rundown had nothing scheduled for Los Angeles. Go figure.

—Julie Makinen

Photo: The Rev. Billy (performance artist Bill Talen) lays his hands on a cash register among his street-preacher antics in the 2007 film "What Would Jesus Buy?"

Credit: Fred Askew Photography / Warrior Poets

Comments

[Austin]

Good post, I had read it on Adbusters web site which says "we remember that no one was born to shop, we make a small choice to participate by not participating"

But I'm all prepared for shopping, I have done little research and downloaded a great Black Friday Strategy Guide from Retrevo here - http://www.retrevo.com/content/special-reports/2008/11/black-friday-coming-early-year

[theatom]

I think credit card cut-up is a fantastic idea- what more proof do we need than the current economic climate??

I for one am fully behind buy nothing day, it's amazing what you learn about yourself when you're stripped of all the 'extras' for just 24 hours! The first time I took part the main thing that killed me was not being able to talk to anyone on my mobile for what felt like forever! It's like a fast from consumerism!

That's part of the reason why we started the swapping site www.ourswaps.com - to give people another option- we all need 'things' at the end of the day, but there are eco-friendly ways around it, and swapping is just one of them.