Spain Cries Out, "Down With Santa!"

Spanish citizens and some Spanish retailers work to put the Christ back in Christmas. Spanish grafitti depicits Santa Clause as evil with slogans such as: Down With Santa, Down with the Fat Red Capitalist, Reindeers don't fly. Camels do walk. Enough already with the fraud. There is even a rap song with the line, ""anta — you think you're on the crest of the ola [wave], but you're just product placement for Coca Cola"

The gift giving tradition in Spain has gifts exchanged on January 6th on All Kings Day to celebrate the Kings taking gifts to the baby Jesus. The Spanish have a campaign, "I'm with the Kings." They want children to know that it is the Kings who brought the presents to the baby Jesus not the Fat Red Capitalist--Santa Clause. (Source)

An anti-corporate movement is spreading worldwide...Buy Nothing Day originated in Canada and is also practiced in other nations such as America....Unfortunately it is difficult for the world to separate the United States from the international corporations attempt to rule the world. It appears as if the Corporations own the American government (which rarely listens to the people but have big ears and deep pockets for the bills that corporations want)....and the rest of the world fears that the corporations plan to utilize America's military might to keep their vision of "Free Trade" alive and spreading throughout the world.

So Merry Christmas everyone...especially to my close friends and family who have chosen for years now to celebrate the "spirit" of Christmas, Solstice, and Hannakuh without spending a dime on gifts that too often end up in the landfill.

Buy George Bush

If you must buy something for Christmas check out this George Bush Doll. It definitely captures his essence.



You can participate in the Buy Nothing Day Campaign and order this doll online on any day but Nov 24th.. Heck it may end up being a collector's item...at least it's amusing.

You can buy the Bush Doll here

Participate by NOT Participating

Buy Nothing Day

Every November, for 24 hours, we remember that no one was born to shop. If you’ve never taken part in Buy Nothing Day, or if you’ve taken part in the past but haven’t really committed to doing it again, consider this: 2006 will go down as the year in which mainstream dialogue about global warming finally reached its critical mass. What better way to bring the Year of Global Warming to a close than to point in the direction of real alternatives to the unbridled consumption that has created this quagmire?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Buy Nothing Day Link

NOVEMBER 24 IS BUY NOTHING DAY - NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
(November 25 outside of North America)


THE ULTIMATE REFUND: On November 24th and 25th – the busiest days in the American retail calendar and the unofficial start of the international Christmas-shopping season – thousands of activists and concerned citizens in 65 countries will take a 24-hour consumer detox as part of the 14th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global phenomenon that originated in Vancouver, Canada.

From joining zombie marches through malls to organizing credit card cut-ups and shopoholic clinics, Buy Nothing Day activists aim to challenge themselves, their families and their friends to switch off from shopping and tune back into life for one day. Featured in recent years by the likes of CNN, Wired, the BBC, and the CBC, the global event is celebrated as a relaxed family holiday, as a non-commercial street party, or even as a politically charged public protest. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.

Reasons for participating in Buy Nothing Day are as varied as the people who choose to participate. Some see it as an escape from the marketing mind games and frantic consumer binge that has come to characterize the holiday season, and our culture in general. Others use it to expose the environmental and ethical consequences of overconsumption.

Two recent, high-profile disaster warnings outline the sudden urgency of our dilemma. First, in October, a global warming report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern predicted that climate change will lead to the most massive and widest-ranging market failure the world has ever seen. Soon after, a major study published in the journal Science forecast the near-total collapse of global fisheries within 40 years.

Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the Adbusters Media Foundation, which was responsible for turning Buy Nothing Day into an international annual event, said, “Our headlong plunge into ecological collapse requires a profound shift in the way we see things. Driving hybrid cars and limiting industrial emissions is great, but they are band-aid solutions if we don’t address the core problem: we have to consume less. This is the message of Buy Nothing Day.”

As Lasn suggests, Buy Nothing Day isn't just about changing your habits for one day. It’s about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste. With six billion people on the planet, the onus if on the most affluent – the upper 20% that consumes 80% of the world’s resources – to begin setting the example.



For more information and media interviews contact

MEDIA LIASON: Laura Fauth
TELEPHONE NUMBER: 604-736-9401
EMAIL: media-pr [at] adbusters [dot] org



Editor’s Notes

[1] For more information on Adbusters, Buy Nothing Day, or to watch Kalle Lasn’s 2004 Buy Nothing Day interview with CNN visit www.adbusters.org

[2] Buy Nothing Day facts:
* The first BND was organized in Vancouver in September 1992, an idea by artist Ted Dave, as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.
* In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, which is the busiest shopping pre-Christmas weekend in the US. Outside of North America, BND is usually celebrated on the following Saturday.
* Despite controversies, Adbusters managed to advertise BND on CNN, but many other major TV networks declined to air their ads.
* Soon, campaigns started appearing in US, UK, Israel, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway. Participation now spans over 65 nations.

[3] Shopping and consumption facts:
* Per capita consumption in the U.S. has risen 45 per cent in the last 20 years.
* Although people today are, on average, four-and-a-half times richer than our great-grandparents were at the turn of the century, Americans report feeling “significantly less well off” than in 1958.
* A recent article in New Scientist featured research suggesting that the more consumer goods you have the more you think you need to make you happy. Happiness through consumption is always out of reach (New Scientist, 4th October 2003, Vol.180, Issue 2415, p44. Available online after registering at www.newscientist.co.uk).