Fun_People Archive
24 Nov
... in opposition to the current economic policy in the United

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 97 22:08:49 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: ... in opposition to the current economic policy in the United
	States.

Forwarded-by: Nev Dull <nev@bostic.com>
Forwarded-by: Kevin Taglang <kevint@BENTON.ORG>

Title:  A Holiday Greeting Network's Won't Air: Shoppers Are 'Pigs'
Source: Wall Street Journal  (A1)
Author: Robert Berner
Issue:  Advertising

Description: Former advertising executive turned anti-consumerism activist
Kalle Lasn has been waging a grass-roots campaign against Christmas-time
commercialism. His strategy: Attack Christmas shopping one day at a time,
beginning with the season kickoff on the day after Thanksgiving, Each year,
Mr. Lasn calls for a 24-hour shopping moratorium on that Friday, he calls
it Buy Nothing Day. He has a commercial that has an animated pig
superimposed over a map of North America with a voice-over reporting on how
much the average North American consumes in comparison to other countries.
The Big Three networks won't air the commercial, though.  Richard Gitter,
VP of advertising standards at GE's NBC network, said, "We don't want to
take any advertising that's inimical to our legitimate business interests."
CBS, in a letter rejecting the commercial, said that Buy Nothing Day is "in
opposition to the current economic policy in the United States." Mr. Lasn's
commercial probably wouldn't even be seen if it was aired, he only has a
$15,000 budget. Mr. Lasn said, "I came from Estonia where you were not
allowed to speak up against the government.  Here I was in North America,
and suddenly I realized you can't speak up against the sponsor. There is
something fundamentally undemocratic about our public airways."

[Long-time Fun_People will remember reading about "Buy - O - Day" in 1993
 <http://www.empire.net/~psl/Fun_People/1993/1993AEA.html> as it approached
 its first birthday.  Back then it was celebrated on September 24th.  Now
 it's "Buy Nothing Day" and celebrated on the heaviest shopping day of the
 year... wow!  -psl]

[UPDATE: The Fun_People archive moved in September 1998 to:
	<http://www.langston.com/Fun_People/>  -psl]

[I kinda liked calling it "Buy-O-Day" -- Can you imagine Harry Belafonte
 singing the theme song, Buy-O?  And we could have lots of different ways
 to Buy Nothing: sleeping, going for a walk, playing the banjo, having a
 conversation, thinking, flirting, doing sit-ups, ... real Buy-O diversity!
  Okay, okay, I'll stop!  -psl]
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