The is the front man of the Church of Stop Shopping, a New York-based anti-consumerist congregation that is catching the attention of America's through their "preach-outs" in the very heart of mass consumption all over the United States, such as distribution chains and entertainment and leisure franchises like Starbucks (see The Starbucks theater) or Disney stores.
Reverend Billy is the creation of the author/actor Bill Talen and garnered notice since 1997 through sidewalk preaching to eager crowds in Times Square during the Mayor Giuliani era. Since then, dozens of actions have been staged and a book and a documentary about the Church of stop Shopping have been released.
Have a read at a few Words from the Reverend, at some Starbucks literature about him (WHAT SHOULD I DO IF REVEREND BILLY IS IN MY STORE?) and at Reverend Billy's response to it: WHAT SHOULD I DO IF REVEREND BILLY IS IN MY STORE?.
LICK-A-LUYA!!!
 Introduction. "Welcome to the church of cccb!" - Gift economy in the desert. New York garbage. In Bakersfield, California. |
 A coffee in the middle of oil drillers. The epiphany of the American disease. A vision of a future language and corporate hieroglyphs. |
 Come happy, leave hungry: a corporate slogan flipped. The most fundamentalist church in my country: the church of consumerism. This daily war must be reversed. Being recombinant trickstering shapeshifting beyond the instructions we were given. Q&A. Do you ever find yourself to be manipulating people? Advertisement identifies people's vulnerabilities, but the vulnerabilities exist. The importance of the performative powerful, which was not invented by advertisement nor by us: content does make a difference. The fear the corporations feel. |
 More Q&A. Is this a real fight? Contradictions and the risk of a paralysis. How a deviant makes the right things and the wrong things at the same time. Change can start with conversation between people. An utopian world without money. The ambiguities of preaching: the responsibility of stealing the tecnique and changing the content. Isn't it dangerous to replicate white men stereotypes? Playing the part of a reverend, but the choir is like a subway car heading Brooklyn. Contradictions in the fight against consumerism and considerations about corporations targeting people who are economically trapped. |
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