Shopocalypse, The Movie
By Tom Ryan
While consumers across the country flocked to malls this past Black Friday, “What Would Jesus Buy?,” an anti-consumerism movie, hit the theaters in limited release. Described as a “docu-comedy,” it follows the adventures of The Rev. Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping and his mission to fight what he calls the “shopocalypse,” the buying frenzy Americans indulge in every holiday season.
As a performance artist and activist in real life, Rev. Billy, aka Bill Talen, has been preaching against consumerism since 1997. Among other incidents, Mr. Talen and his flock has exorcised cash registers, staged “interventions” at retailers such as Victoria’s Secret, set up makeshift confessional booths where consumers can discuss their shopping sins, and even baptized babies to keep them safe from consumer culture. Not surprisingly, he has been arrested dozens of times, and banned from both Starbucks and Disney’s properties.
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Photo courtesy of www.revbilly.com
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Sporting a platinum pompadour, a white suit and the flamboyant manner of a televangelist, Mr. Talen and his group sing humorous songs, tell jokes and are clearly meant to entertain. But the underlying activism message is real.
Talen began his crusade in the nineties when he moved to New York and found chain stores replacing eclectic Mom & Pops. Noticing that only sidewalk preachers were protesting against consumerism, he began parodying one and eventually toured the country railing against the destruction of neighborhoods by malls and chain stores. His message: people should spend less and give more time and thought to loved ones over the holidays.
“Christmas has become the annual repetition of the message, ‘If you love your country you’ll go out and shop,’” Mr. Talen recently told the San Jose Mercury News.
The movie was created by Morgan Spurlock, the director and star of “Supersize Me,” which parodied America’s poor eating habits. In that Academy-award nominated film, Mr. Spurlock gained 24.5 pounds in 30 days and became ill by subsisting entirely on food and items purchased from McDonald’s.
“What Would Jesus Buy?” follows the congregation on a Thanksgiving-to-Christmas tour around the U.S., including Wal-Mart’s home office, the Mall of America and Disneyland. Like “Supersize Me,” the film uses humor to score somber anti-consumerism points. Among the statistics cited in the film is one that says average Americans spend more than five hours a week shopping, while children spend less than 40 minutes a week engaged in meaningful conversation with their parents.
In its review, The New York Times wrote, “Reverend Billy is zany and energetic enough to hold the attention of those he’s preaching to – average to extreme shoppers, many clueless as to what globalization means – long enough for them to consider his crusade. At the very least, the film might make a viewer think twice about that next purchase at the Gap.”
Discussion Question: Do you see any signs of an anti-consumerism movement emerging? What are the implications for retailers and consumer brand marketers?
Although my head mostly agrees with you guys, my gut is beginning to turn that upside down.
It’s rare when the far left and the far right agree, but on this issue, traction is starting to take hold. Have you ever read Adbusters? Editor in Chief and Author Kalle Lash (Culture Jam) makes several incredible points monthly and their readership has increased logarithmically for years. They call Black Friday “BUY NOTHING DAY” and have been emphatically at it for years.
And from the middle, Ken Burns, on his media tour for his new WWII documentary has been saying, “back then, they asked us to sacrifice…after 9/11, they told us to ‘go shopping’”…that’s pretty damning, wouldn’t you say?
All these case studies, extreme or not, are a backlash to our mass-consumption oriented society. For us in retail, keeping an eye on this movement and responding accordingly vs. dismissing it would be a wise move.
I agree with FinAnlyst’s comments regarding green. If the environmental movement continues to take off, some (or a lot) of that will veer into a stronger anti-consumption trend. The less you buy, the less garbage you make. Not sure if I totally buy into the theory that we’re all being manipulated to consume. But if it’s true, the guilt over not shopping will ultimately do battle with the guilt over destroying the planet!
This is a non-movement in my opinion. The unfortunate truth is that several generations of Americans have been raised to believe that the only way to show love is to BUY and GIVE something. Add to this the increasing obsession with celebrities and where they shop and what they wear and the increasing number of makeover shows or even entire channels devoted to consumerism (like HGTV), and you have a society completely absorbed with owning more “stuff”.
American children can’t read or write, but they can recognize brand logos from a block away. Not even falling incomes stop Americans from consuming. The only event that will change the American economy is a complete collapse of the credit markets and I wonder (or better, worry) when that might be.
First a special note for Jerry – I’ve just heard a so-called factoid on a radio programme about how the thumbnail grows more slowly than any of the other fingernails. So someone with an awful lot of time on their hands (no pun intended) has already decided that that is an interesting line of thought.
As for anti-consumerism, from a European perspective I am more inclined to think that selective consumerism will gain ground in the short and medium term future. Variations on this article were in several papers today….
But but but I did a little tour of some top London stores yesterday and found that the newly refurbished Fortnum & Mason, about which I wrote not long ago, is absolutely gorgeous. Totally seductive. And visibly (albeit anecdotally based on a very brief visit) thriving. Although it gives the impression of unabashed luxury, and there are undeniably a lot of extremely expensive products, there were also many reasonably priced offerings and the tail-coated, formally dressed staff absolutely could not have been friendlier or more helpful. No snobbishness whatsoever. The place reeked of love and care and commitment towards products and customers who were being visibly cosseted. Am I in love with consumerism? Could be.
Next up, although not opening until Dec 14, was the Nokia flagship store in Regent St, strategically located directly opposite the Apple store. Since its opening, the Apple store has been jumping every time I go past (at least once a month) but I have rarely seen anyone buy anything. Nokia is going to have an interactive window, whatever that means, so it should be interesting.
Finally, as usual, I clocked the bags shoppers on Oxford St were carrying. Still a lot from Primark (which, surprisingly, didn’t seem quite as crowded as usual although I did pass at different times to my usual), Selfridges and Marks & Spencer with the odd Zara thrown in.
I’m not sure what, if any, conclusions can be drawn from all this and stores here are certainly concerned about high prices, loss of consumer confidence and competition from online sales but my gut feeling is that people will not necessarily stop consuming but might think more carefully about when, what, where and why they consume. And I do believe that most people here are well aware of globalisation and its implications.
Anticonsumerism in America? It is un-American. With the availability of easy credit, a strong infrastructure and almost full employment, the US has been buoyed by its consumerism over the decades. It is our consumerism that creates jobs and keeps the economy rolling, even the worst of times.
Well-made or not, the film “What Would Jesus Buy?” makes its point merely by existing. I agree, it’s a brilliant bit of promotion by Reverend Billy and the film makers.
I would submit that the dysfunction in American consumerism is more about what we buy than how much we spend. Holiday shopping is unfortunately largely about spending on non-necessities, including too many products that contribute little or nothing to culture or quality of life, consume precious energy resources in their manufacturing and packaging, then wind up persisting in land-fills for centuries.
But we could just as well shift our holiday spending from self-indulgent consumption to investment in the quality of our world and lives. We need some new status symbols in America: Instead of a new home theater or SUV, how about rooftop photovoltaics or an electric commuter car? How about home gray-water cisterns for irrigating our lawns? How about charity drives that send humanitarian aid to distressed people in East Africa or Bangladesh or the Middle East or our own Gulf Coast?
Yeah, I know this has been said many times before. Mr. Macy and Mr. Gimbel and Mr. Wanamaker and Mr. Walton taught us to buy our way to happiness. But their kind of consumption is not the way to genuine fulfillment, much less enlightenment. Lately, I’ve had the sinking feeling that the stakes are more vital than that–in a crowded, contentious world, it’s a matter of sheer survival.
The cynic in me says that the recent adoption of the term “Black Friday” by mainstream media and even retailers themselves is the surest sign of the imminent collapse of the phenomenon.
With so much focus on doorbusters, and limited availability items, it’s almost inevitable that retailers are going to spread out from Black Friday to try to capture some clear air. But holiday shopping isn’t going away any time soon.
While most of us are multi-tasking just to keep up with our mounting workload, obviously some people–like Rev. Billy–have too much free time on their hands. As they say, it’s a free country. Hey, why not a documentary about how long a checkout counter girl’s fingernails grow every second?
I think the anti-consumerist idea will grow slightly if they can successfully tie in the growing “green” movement. After all, the creation and consumption of new goods consumes large amounts of resources that could be saved via “reuse, reduce, recycle.”
On the whole, I don’t see it becoming a strong movement at all–the world’s culture is programmed to consume. If you were to take shopping from people’s lives, they might be compelled to–gasp–look for “real” things to do. Anyone have ideas for taking anti-consumerism and driving sales/customers?
I agree totally with Joanna.
Reverend Billy Talen is a genius at getting publicity, but most Americans are materialistic and won’t stop shopping. Some retailers have charity programs (Target, various supermarkets) and a tiny few stay closed on Sunday (Hobby Lobby, Chick-fil-A) but The Church of Stop Shopping hasn’t gotten to be a mass movement. The closest Americans have come to The Word of Billy: they recycle on eBay.
No, I don’t see any evidence of anti-consumerism. The decline in consumer spending is due to monetary pressures at the gas pump and the housing slump. Release the recent economic pressures, consumers would still be purchasing at the same rate.
Though I must admit, I was shocked to immediately find a parking spot at the local shopping mall on Black Friday.
I hope an “anti consumerism” movement is underway. The line referring to helping your country by buying more stuff this holiday season is dead on. Our whole economy and society is built on consumption. 70% of GDP is represented by consumer consumption. As a result, we are a debtor nation with a population that saves nothing. We’ve outgrown this model…it doesn’t work anymore and the cracks are getting bigger every day. Pollution, global warming, exploitation of underdeveloped economies, dwindling resources, excessive credit…We need to take our eyes off the top line and start focusing more on managing all the costs.
My anti-consumerism crusade goes by a different name: Poverty.