Adbusters on Quest to Reveal Truth of Consumerism

Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz created a non profit, anti-consumerist organization in 1989 in Vancouver, British Columbia, called "Adbusters Media Foundation" (aka "Adbusters", or the" Media Foundation"). Its mission was to raise awareness and advance the new social activist movement of the information age. The company's unique tactics and ways sparks the memory of the individual watching on the other side of the television, which is its purpose.

Starting their foundation with a magazine, Adbusters had an explosive growth of supporters and volunteers to assist with the cause. Many stories had been told by global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs. Devoting their time and effort to put an end to the existing power of spoon-fed, money making structures, such as television commercial, magazine ads, etc., and thrust a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century.

One of their methods, is the "Buy Nothing Day", had started back in 1992 which encourages people not to shop for the holiday season on the day after Thanksgiving.Volunteers of Adbusters have been known to stand outside shopping centers to raise awareness, (despite the store's low retail prices) and offer to shred any person's (that is willing) credit card, for prevention of drastic consumption.

In an interview with CNN, Kalle Lasn attempts to explain why the Adbusters began this movement. "Think about it, after this very spiritual holiday, (Thanksgiving) why is it that our culture is somehow requiring us to go out the next day and max out all of our credit cards and buy probably more than we need to buy?" He also states that while millions of people are out shopping on this day, there are also millions of other people who are not, and proudly announces that the "Buy Nothing Day" is celebrated among 65 other countries.

It wasn't there that the Adbusters stopped. As they continue to raise awareness with their magazines, they have so far, doctored up "uncommercials", ads that they've made to raise awareness of how the North Americans over consume. Describing how the world can die due to the way North Americans live, their powerful, hard hitting commercials have been turned down for air time with many television stations such as NBC, ABC, CBS, MTV, despite the fact that Adbusters were willing to purchase the air time.

Other organizations have also helped support the Adbusters. Some well known groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, have welcomed the challenge of working together in hopes to end the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces. These activists make commentaries from around the world identifying issues that range from genetically modified foods to media concentration. They have a strong commentary on a website at www.unbrandamerica.org which states the promise to take back our country from consumerism, America's new form of religion.

Aside from the "Buy Nothing Day", Adbusters had also raised awareness in another original tradition that they call, "TV Turnoff Week", that is believed to be a significant step for the activist networking group. (Promotes spending quality time with family, exercise, etc.) The Adbusters state only the factual current events that are played constantly through our media, only to be silenced by the media itself.

Sources:

adbusters.org/videos/
adbusters.org/food
www,unbrandamerica.org