What happened to Buy Nothing Day?

Maybe I just haven't been paying attention recently, but this is the first year in a long time that I haven't heard about Buy Nothing Day. I know that it is that day, but I can't recall hearing that it was coming up at all in the last few weeks.

Black Friday, the largest shopping day of the year in the USA ( and which Buy Nothing Day is a response to), has been covered quite a bit, in part with articles with the ominous headlines such as "Black Friday shoppers shot, pepper sprayed."

So I just looked up Buy Nothing Day. The first hit is a page on Adbusters' web site and it turns out that this is the twentieth anniversary of the anti-consumerism celebration. That makes it especially odd that I haven't heard anything leading up today. With the Occupy movement getting so much attention, one would think this would be a perfect time to question the way we spend money (and much of that money not even real money at all, much of the purchases being paid by credit card).

Even knowing it was Buy Nothing Day though, I wasn't as careful not to buy anything as I have been in the past. When I first consciously did not buy anything on the Friday after American Thanksgiving, I was very careful. I'd bring a snack to eat at school so I wouldn't spend money on food. Even so, I was pretty good this year. All I bought today was lunch ($6.25 + $1 tip) and a box of Kleenex ($3.50). I'm sure my twenty-something-year-old self would be disgusted, but I don't feel too guilty.