On November 24 I went down to the Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne to capture some video of “Buy Nothing Day”.
Download for iPod / iTunes / Quicktime.
Watch as the protesters get harassed by street cleaners in the employ of THE MAN!
Soundtrack is NEW MUSIC by the one and only PUBLIC ENEMY
from “Rebirth Of A Nation”
by Public Enemy Featuring Paris
Guerrilla Funk Recordings
Come on, Who is this really advertising? This is a paid viral ad by David Jones, right?
This guy is a joke! He tells us we are consuming to much crap, and what is he going to do to keep this going through the year? Get STICKERS MADE UP!!!!!!!
No one sees the joke in this? And when he is telling us we are buying to much useless crap, he is wearing a Tshirt that seemed to be made for the occasion and EAR RINGS!!!!!
What part to ear ringings play in the needs of a person? are they holding his ear on?
JOKE JOKE JOKE!!!!!!!!!!
Molly
PS. Fuck no buy! BUY BUY BUY. Buy a Boony for god sake and enjoy yourself.
I’m down with the sentiment. Although you can poke holes all over the day itself, and the ideal situation would be people thinking about this all year long as we make hundreds of excessive purchases, the only way to make a dent in our thinking with such limited resources is to concentrate the attack (and message) into one day.
…it’s just lucky Cam that you didn’t run out of blank videos 😉
Stupid left wing farker!
This is a freakin great idea. There is so much unnecessary consumption in the first world. Portable DVDs? I mean for fucks sake, where are you going to take it? To bed? To the park? In fact there is so much outrageous consumption that people are getting obese from lack of real excercise and too much shite in their lives. People ar so removed from teh natyral world that supplies EVERYTHING they consume that most of tghem don’t even know where their milk comes from. In fact the way that Victorains live is so excessive that if everyone on the planet lived this way, we would need four plantes to supply all our ‘needs’. If you think the idea of going without buying anything for just one day is silly – just try it! You will realise how difficult it is.
For some of us who travel 2+ hrs each way for work portable DVD players are great. Tons of people use them on the trains on the way home and maybe in the mornings, I wouldn’t know I sleep then.
If you have a laptop it’s different but some of us can’t justify having a laptop.
And as I said a week or two ago when the topic first came up, what did it achieve? Jack shit, really. The already converted left-wing ego trendies in their chafing recycled potato sack underpants felt totally righteous for not buying anything… before returning home and using all the stuff they bought in the days, weeks and months before, of course… and meanwhile, the rest of humanity thought, “How quaint…” and gave the idea a quick pat on the head as they walked past. Do people buy too much? Sure they do. Is this the best way to highlight it? Nope. Not by a long shot.
I’m not sure about the potato sack undies Rob. At least I didn’t see either of them limping or walking gingerly at all 🙂
Rob,
a) i watched a bunch of people take the flyers that the jammers were handing out, so how do you know it didn’t have an impact?
b) if this isn’t the best way to highlight it, what is? Got any suggestions for better things to do? Or are you content to hide in the shadows and throw crap through the bars like the rest of the chimps?
Speaking of protests, I just read a VERY interesting article on Wikipedia about the 1968 Olympics and the Black Power Salute [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_Salute].
Peter Norman, an Aussie who placed second in the men’s 200m track and field, was sympathetic to the cause of his fellow podium finishers and as such was barred from the next games. He died just only last month after what reads as a terrible time, but I didn’t hear boo in the media (not that i’d really expect to). It’s a shame he didn’t get the same respect Cathy Freeman got (well the second time round at least).
Norman still holds the Australian 200m record from the event in 1968. http://www.athletics.org.au/records/records_event_result.cfm?RequestTimeout=500
I heard mention of it on Hack (Triple J) Hugo. They interviewed his daughter or someone, and also talked about whether such a protest could happen at a future olympics. Interviewed some officials etc.
Good old Hack,
I’m still annoyed Steve Canain got the arse from the 9-12 slot. But then again I don;t listen to radio much any more. It’s mostly podcasts now.
I’ll see if it’s in there hack feed. Thanks Miriam.
Cam
a) Mim herself watched those same people throwing the flyers in the bin.
b) Give me the same amount of time this guy took to have this idea, and I’ll give you one 50 times better.
On another topic – I thought the video itself was great. Short, to the point, good location, music was great, and the hand held style suited the peice. Well done Cam. Lets have more like this.
Thanks Jodie. I was pretty happy with it. I enjoy editing videos. Lot of fun.