Friday, November 23, 2007

Today is Buy Nothing Day

The anarcho-environmental folks at ad-busters have been putting this together for quite a few years now. Even the New York Times has noticed this year. While the frenzied celebration of capitalist consumerism is certainly disgusting, what are the limits of this form of mobilizing people's opposition to the social costs of capitalism? Is "anti-consumption" a viable message for the left to embrace? While there is much merit in these subversive and slick campaigns, it seems important to think about the limits of such activities at the same time that we support them in their work.

While selling sex, objectifying women, and spreading commodity fetishism, MTV has rejected advertising about Buy Nothing Day. Send an email to the execs.

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1 comment:

SJ said...

Is it really surprising that MTV refused to give airtime to the Buy Nothing Day PSA? I mean, their entire channel is devoted to consumer culture. Perhaps AdBusters should rethink this and take a more realistic approach so that it stops wasting its time on targets that won't budge. On the other hand, AdBusters is still drawing attention to the issue and I still sent the MTV execs an angry email - so they must be doing something right.