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Fashion / Sustainability
Patagonia’s thoughtful anti-Black Friday campaign goes viral
The global outdoor brand's latest manifesto has stirred up discussions within the fashion world.
By ERIK SEDIN
30 Nov 2020

You might have stumbled upon a clever marketing campaign from Patagonia over the weekend. The initiative from the American outdoor brand is named Buy Less, Demand More and hopes to inject some sustainable habits to its consumers, to halt fashion’s damage on our planet. Patagonia campaign manifesto reads:


We’re all screwed
So don’t tell us that we can imagine a healthy future
Because the reality is it’s too late to fix the climate crisis
And we don’t trust anyone who says
We need to demand a livable planet
Because we don’t have a choice

(Now read this bottom up).

The text was printed on posters that were plastered all around the world and took up full pages in some of the world’s biggest newspapers. Patagonia timed this campaign just before Black Friday, and the clever text takes a stand against the fashion world’s huge impact on global warming.

— We really believe that Black Friday, as a concept, is really unhealthy to our health and global health. The idea of consuming for the sake of consuming is completely opposite of where we need to go as a society in order to rein in our carbon footprint and be able to make a positive impact on this immense climate issue that we’re dealing with, Jenna Johnson, head of Patagonia, told InStyle.

At the same time, the campaign has received its share fair of criticism. It’s not the first time that Patagonia has been accused of greenwashing, and the Buy Less, Demand More campaign is no exception. Many people are taking to social media to question Patagonia’s way of shaming a fashion industry they are very much a big part of. The Harvard Business Review also writes that the buy less-call also can make for the opposite, and create a bigger revenue for Patagonia.