The Ordinary Is Boycotting Black Friday This Year For This Very Important Reason

Black Friday has always been a time of mass discounts, slashed price tags, and well, madness. In recent years, the yearly shopping event has been taken to new heights, with deals spanning weeks rather than just one day, and in-store shopping resembling an apocalyptic dystopia. So it comes as no surprise, really, that certain brands are starting to rebel against the 'holiday'. In fact, The Ordinary's parent company Deciem is boycotting Black Friday this year, and their reason is really quite important.

Deciem — which owns brands such as NIOD and Hyalamide, as well as The Ordinary — has announced that in 2019, the brand will not be taking part in Black Friday. In fact, they are so passionate about rejecting the day, they're set to have a mass blackout on 29 November. All of Deciem's stores will be shut, and their website will be down for the entire day.

While this may sound odd, the brand does have a very valid, very considered reason: they don't wish to encourage hyper consumerism. "Hyper consumerism poses one of the biggest threats to the planet," their statement reads. "We do not feel that Black Friday is an earth or consumer-friendly event as it encourages excessive purchasing of items, that consumers might not necessarily purchase if items weren't discounted."

Indeed, our awareness of things like fast fashion has increased massively in the past couple of years, as well as the affect consumerism can have on the planet. Waste, packaging, and unethical work standards all present a threat to the planet, and events like Black Friday arguably allow these issues to thrive.

Instead of taking part in Black Friday, Deciem has instead announced they will be offering a discount of 23% off their entire website and off all of their brands (including The Ordinary, which rarely happens) throughout the entire month of November (apart from 29 November, of course). "This will hopefully encourage customers to show slowly and to make educated, mindful decisions based on what their skincare regimen should be," they point out, then adding:

"We strongly believe that skincare decisions should be based on education rather than impulse, and hope that a month-long promotion will provide the time for research, reflection, and consideration."

Last year, Deciem discounted 16 of their products, only to find come Black Friday itself that nearly everything had sold out. This is presumably another reason why they have decided to take a different approach this year.

You can read more about their decision and shop their brands at deciem.com.