VANCOUVER,, British Columbia, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- For the ninth year, an organization known as Adbusters Media Foundation is advocating a "Buy Nothing Day," for the Friday after Thanksgiving, but the campaign against conspicuous consumption is meeting more opposition in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
"Initially, about a month ago, when we first started talking about it, we suddenly got a lot of people getting angry at us," said Kalle Lasn, Adbusters director. "And we thought, 'Uh oh, things are really different this year.'"
Adbusters says too much consumption will deplete resources and eventually destroy the planet as we know it.
An advertisement for the protest on what is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year ran this week on CNN and in other smaller broadcast and print outlets. It was rejected by ABC, CBS and NBC as it has been in other years.
The television commercial depicts a belching pig symbolizing North Americans and their penchant for over-consumption.
The U.S. government is promoting more shopping because of an economy that was slumping before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and then became worse. Consumerism is seen as the engine that will get the economy going again.
Not so, Adbusters of Vancouver, Canada said Wednesday.
A statement on the organization's website says "the official 'shop while the bombs drop' rhetoric is coming out of Washington and London and Ottawa without any context or caveats at all.
"No mention that it's a short term emergency measure that comes at a long-term expense of the planet," it said.
The group has received the usual enthusiastic support on its website, but the negative response has also been spirited.
"We are at war and the economy is in danger and in my opinion, a calling for a cessation of consumerism shows poor taste and an utter lack of patriotism," said one respondent who identified himself as Casey Potter of Baltimore.
"Consumer confidence is dropping, people are losing their jobs. Like it or not, keeping money actively moving is key to stabilizing the economy ... and people's lives," said another response.
