The Buy Nothing Day falls on the third Saturday of November and it is about switching off from shopping for 24 hours and tuning into life.

It aims to make people think about the consequences of consumerism: “to buy or not to buy, that is the question.”

 

Buy Noting Day asks us to consider our shopping habits just for one day, in opposition to the buying frenzy whipped up by shopping 'holidays' such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The idea however is that our change in behaviour could maybe become more long term.

 

I have thought of an ambient media campaign with the intention to make people stop, think and consider the problem: why to shop? Why to stop?

 

I have looked at Ambient Media as a vehicle to communicate my ideas. Ambient media tends to occupy a space somewhere between advertising and promotional stunts. In an age where the consumer tends to be wary of the hard sell and constant exposure to advertising and promotion, the use of original and unexpected media can be very effective precisely because it allows the message to “slip under the radar”. Ambient media works on the surprise factor, by capturing an audience with a message when they last expect it, which makes a message hard to avoid but also makes it more memorable.

 

My concept is based on the principle that small changes make big differences.

By substituting or adding a single letter to an existing word we can reach completely opposite meanings.

I subverted both the “THE BODY SHOP” and the “TOPSHOP” brand graphic to promote my campaign. Like so I have done it with road signs.

As either the brand graphic either the road signs are very well known, they make people immediately recognize there is a message to get underneath them.