World No Shopping Day (25/11)

Every year at the end of November, people in many countries around the world refuse any purchases for a day, reminding themselves that excessive consumption — is a dangerous social trend.

Shopping opt-out day (English. Buy Nothing Day is celebrated in North America on the first Friday after American Thanksgiving Day (and in Europe the next day — on Saturday), which is the traditional start time of Christmas sales around the world. On this day, stores receive from 20 to 50% of their annual revenue, and people die every year in mass stampedes in the largest shopping centers. Not without a bit of sarcasm, this Friday in November is called «Black Friday.

It is on this day that public activists call for the most sensible attitude towards their purchases and protest against the consumer society.

The idea for this holiday-promotion originated in America in 1992. The initiative to refuse purchases was made by Canadian journalist of Estonian origin Kalle Lasn. In his opinion, the cause of the financial crisis should be sought not in liquidity or unregulated markets, but in a culture of excess and thoughtless consumption.

The most famous argument of the action's apologists is that only 20% of the world's population lives in countries with a high standard of living, and they use more than 80% of all the Earth's natural resources. Which is not only an unfair distribution of the wealth of our planet, but also causes excessive damage to the environment.

The terms of participation in the promotion are simple — within 24 hours you need to cancel any acquisitions (Photo: f8grapher, licensed by Shutterstock.com)

In 2001, with the support of the Adbusters website, this action acquired a global scale; in addition to Mexico, Canada and the USA, No Shopping Day was held in another 55 countries. Currently, 10 more states have joined such actions.

The conditions for participation in this promotion are simple — within 24 hours you must cancel any acquisitions. In addition, activists hold actions under the motto «For peace on earth, don’t buy anything!» to attract public attention. The protests are peaceful demonstrations in shopping malls, as well as « anti-advertising» videos reporting that the average US resident buys five times more goods than a Mexican, ten times more than a Chinese, and thirty times more than an Indian citizen.

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