"Less Buying, More Being": Irish Advertising Industry's Black Friday Campaign

The Irish advertising industry has united to launch its first national large-scale alternative Black Friday campaign challenging high-consumption culture. Titled ‘Less Buying, More Being’, it promotes a vision of well-being focused on connection, encouraging citizens to embrace experiences that support connection to self, to others and to nature.

The creative campaign was developed through the ‘Good Life 2030 Ireland’ project by over 40 professionals across 10 of Ireland’s leading marketing, advertising and media agencies: Bonfire, CORE, Droga5, Folk VML, Havas, Publicis Dublin, The Public House, THINKHOUSE, TBWA/Bolt and Verve/Showrunner. It was inspired by research that revealed citizen visions of a ‘good life’ for 2030 and a strong desire for the advertising industry to promote sustainable, healthy lifestyles.

Reaching 3.5 million adults (80% of the population) across Ireland, the campaign’s messages—displayed in both Irish and English—include: “Less buying, more being,” “Less shopping sprees, more native trees,” and “Less fast pace, more open space.” The campaign tagline is signed off with the unifying call “Let’s advertise a better life.” The creative work has been launched in print, TV, cinema, radio, outdoor advertisements, and online media throughout November to coincide with COP29, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Project lead, Laura Costello, head of sustainability & planet services at THINKHOUSE and Ireland lead for Purpose Disruptors stated, “This work is a compelling invitation to connect with each other and nature - which is what citizens say they actually want. The campaign signifies a timely step forward for the advertising industry in embracing its responsibility to work together and generate climate and nature communications at scale. The creation process highlighted some of the major tensions in people’s work day to day. It also revealed a shared longing to use our skills as architects of desire in better ways. There’s a growing understanding that we need to move beyond harmful consumerism-driving narratives and help imagine a sustainable future that feels irresistible. A heartfelt thank you to the people, landscapes and birds who made the project possible.”  

The campaign serves as a counterpoint to the consumption-driven culture of Black Friday, which saw global sales of $70.9 billion in 2023 (up 8% YoY) - 80% of which are predicted to end up in landfills within a very short time. This annual event spotlights how marketing and advertising fuels climate breakdown by driving cultures of overconsumption.

Gary Boylan, creative director, Havas Dublin, added: “The creation of this campaign was an industry first, seeing agencies normally in competition with each other collaborating with a united aim. Finding yourself in a room with brand new creative partners, not to mention the time pressure to come up with the goods, was an exciting challenge. It was a really enjoyable experience and I think the fresh approach shows in the work. We’ve created a moment of calm on the noisiest day of the year, Black Friday. And, coming from the people who are primarily responsible for creating that noise (the advertising industry), I think it’s even more surprising.”

Tania Banotti, director, Creative Ireland, emphasised the significance of advertising’s role in creating a sustainable future: “Creative Ireland is delighted to support Good Life 2030 Ireland as part of the Creative Climate Action fund.  The advertising industry faces significant challenges about how as an industry they, and their work for clients, respond to the climate and nature crisis. It’s commendable they wish to be a force for change. This is a first step, lending their creative talents and media weight to the message to reduce our consumption and highlighting the positive future we will enjoy if we make changes now.”

Generous media support for the national campaign, led by GroupM, is provided by Pearl & Dean, Mediahuis, Global, Talon, News Ireland, Irish Times, Urban Media, Bauer Media Audio Ireland and many others. 

Good Life 2030 Ireland Creative Approach

The Good Life 2030 Ireland campaign was directly informed by in-depth, nationally representative qualitative and quantitative research undertaken at the end of 2023. Three key findings laid the foundation for the campaign:

1) People desire greater connection: When prompted to think about what makes a ‘good life’, nothing matters more to people than being connected - to themselves, each other and nature. 

2) The big barrier to living a ‘good life’ is time: Almost half (42%) of adults claimed that they “don’t have the time or motivation to think beyond today or redirect my life.”

3) Industry should do more: 77% of Irish adults believe that “the advertising industry should help people lead healthy, sustainable lives.”  

These citizen insights informed the creative brief, which invited the collaborative pop-up agency to “swap distraction with connection” by creating work that helps connect people with the things that really matter to them. The objective is to challenge the noise traditionally created by adland, and encourage citizens to redirect their attention to nature and imagine a brighter future. 

The creative process was also informed by the desire to connect with nature. The artwork was created in an outdoor painting workshop, the film and stills were captured in County Wicklow, and the radio was produced in collaboration with ornithologist and wildlife sound recordist Seán Ronayne aka Irish Wildlife Sounds. All audio clips used in the campaign are originals by Seán, captured in a variety of locations across Ireland. 

Citizens across the country are invited to share their vision of a good life at goodlife2030.earth or via @goodlife2030ireland on Instagram.

Rethinking Advertising’s Role

The Good Life 2030 Ireland project, funded by the Government of Ireland via Creative Ireland as part of the Creative Climate Action fund, is created by Purpose Disruptors (an award-winning non-profit on a mission to transform the advertising industry to work in harmony with our natural world) and THINKHOUSE (a B Corp certified, full-service, digital-first marketing company for progressive brands that care about people and the planet). 

The campaign is the latest iteration of Purpose Disruptors’ Good Life 2030 project, which began in the UK in 2021. Good Life 2030 seeks to shift the prevailing narrative of a “good life” that is currently centred around wealth, status, and excessive consumption. Instead, it promotes a new vision—based on citizen research—that focuses on deeper connections to self, others, and to nature. Through workshops and creative initiatives, Good Life 2030 opens a dialogue within the industry, encouraging reflection on its role in perpetuating the existing good life narrative. Purpose Disruptors invite industry professionals to envision an alternative approach that aligns with the planet’s ecosystems and resonates with citizens’ actual desires, and, through cultural campaigns, help foster the cultural shifts needed to address the climate and biodiversity crises.

The campaign is a response urgently needed in light of the latest climate science which currently shows we are on track for a catastrophic 3°C warming (UN, October 2024), which is in part driven by high consumption lifestyles.

As part of the 2024 campaign, leaders of Ireland’s Marketing & Advertising industry also gathered for a Roundtable discussion to explore the relationship between the industry and climate action. Watch highlights from the discussion here.