Back In The Spirit
The frugal holiday started in 1991 in Vancouver, British Columbia when Lasn, disappointed with Christmas’s newfound commercialism wanted to attack the Christmastime shopping frenzy one day at a time, starting with the day after Thanksgiving, which most economists refer to as the biggest shopping day of the year. His choice of weapon was an ad campaign telling shoppers not to buy into the hype of consumerism.

The edgy commercial depicted a snorting pig over a map of North America, saying that the average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person, and 30 times more than a person from India, ending with a plea with viewers to stop consuming for one day, Buy Nothing Day.

Lasn’s message caught on quickly, resulting in many parts of the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan adopting their own versions of the anti-capitalism holiday.