Selling Christmas Consumption Already!

There's still a month to go until our annual Santa Parade for Buy Nothing Day, yet already we're seeing horrific amounts of advertising pushing the message of what we need to make us happy.

This advert by Littlewoods really does take the biscuit:

It reminds us that we should be promoting videos like this one from FoE International, which gives a much more realistic translation of what we're being told :

We have been out on the streets of Birmingham doing the Santa Parade for over a decade now and our picture from last year's Buy Nothing Day won us our first ever Earthmover's Award at Friends of the Earth's local groups conference:

As you can see, we have some tried and tested slogans for our placards, but it has been suggested we could crowd-source some more for this year. So if you have any ideas to add to the likes of:
"Money Can Buy You Love"
"Debt; it's what Christmas is all about"
"Buy More Be Happy"
"Work! Spend! Don't Think!"

please add them in the comments or email them to us campaigns@birminghamfoe.org.uk and if you'd like to join us this year, we have loads of Santa outfits, so the more, the merrier!

Joe Peacock