Our entire
society is based primarily on rampant over-consumption (known to the media as
consumerism).This continues to proceed at a completely non-sustainable level.
Everything that
is bought has an impact on the environment. Highlighting the environmental and
ethical consequences of consumerism, within developed countries only 20% of the
world population are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, and this
is causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage, and an unfair
distribution of wealth.
Buy Nothing Day
highlights the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism. This
takes place internationally on the 26th November, and is a day is
aimed to challenge consumers to switch off from shopping and tune into life, do
something different, and not buy a thing for 24 hours. It is aimed to be a
complete detox from shopping.
100% of consumers that were asked on the high street if they
had heard of Buy Nothing Day answered no. Further, when asked if they had any
idea what this day was about, all were curious to know, but guessed this was a
day where you could not buy anything, but had no specific understanding of why.
“Is this something religious?”
“I can guess it is something related to saving the environment?”
“Is this something religious?”
“I can guess it is something related to saving the environment?”
My approach to advertise Buy Nothing Day, and so that more
consumers understand the purpose of this day, is to simply educate those about
Buy Nothing Day, and to focus on the main reasons for this day.
Everything we buy has an effective impact on the
environment. My concepts highlight the
environmental consequences of consumerism. It is important to highlight such
changes and that they are a continuous problem. It is important to get
consumers to understand about these crucial changes and its impact on the
environment. It is also important that these changes need to be put into effect
for more than one day.
I want to create something that will educate and get consumers to act.
I want to create something that will educate and get consumers to act.
Concept 1- Buy Nothing Day Guide
The idea of the ‘Buy Nothing Use Something’ is a newspaper
full of ideas and tips on how to make things out of ‘nothing’. My target
audience for this is 30- 60 year olds.
The idea of this is, anything can be made out of recycled products
or old pieces of material, and this guide will allow them to explore with the
use of their old ‘junk’ and create something new and worth using, rather than
going out and buying something new. This guide is sure to keep my target
audience occupied with a monthly subscription full of new tasks and tips, and
the reader will also have the opportunity to send in a piece of work created
using old pieces of material and the winner will be the cover star. Readers will also be given the opportunity to
send in their own tips to share with other readers.
Concept 2- Guerilla Advertising
Through the use of guerilla advertising, I will grab the
attention of women shoppers. A recent study by researchers from Newcastle
University's found that three-quarters of women are responsible for the
shopping of food in their households. “The study of nearly 200 British men and
women in their early 30s found that, although half of the women worked full
time, they were still responsible for this aspect of family life.” The pink
feminine bag through the use of the linguistic message will imply that the
woman holding the bag in the advert is destroying the environment. The viewer
will want to read more deeply into this, and question why this woman is
destroying the environment. This is where within the magazine spread, an explanation
will be offered. This campaign will also include clothes labels which will ask
the consumer if they ‘really need to buy the product’ as a way of communicating
with them and to get the consumer to think whether or not they really need the
product. The use of guerilla advertising will grab the attention in a memorable
way and will draw immediate attention.
Concept 3 - Public Awareness Campaign
An earlier experiment with typography in the environment and
only using free and natural resources to create this typography was proven to
show that it attracted the public’s attention. Passers-by would stop to talk
and ask about the typographic pieces, and genuinely shown an interest to the
work. The key thing I learnt from this was, if I was able to grab an audience’s
attention, using this technique for experimental purposes, no doubt would I be
able to grab their attention to create a public awareness campaign for Buy
Nothing Day. A campaign that could grab the public’s attention but mainly, one
that would also communicate a message and make that connection for the consumer
to want to know more about cutting down on buying excessively, but to also
teach them why.
This received a positive reaction off the public, they were
curious to know more about what I was doing. Most people stopped to look, took
photographs and asked questions and this gave me the opportunity to talk to the
public and answer questions about Buy Nothing Day and allow them to understand
the meaning and reason behind this.