REI Stops the Zombie Apocalypse

Hey Humans! Do you love the outdoors? If so, then you will probably love REI’s annual push to enjoy nature on the most sacred of holidays—the Friday after Thanksgiving (AKA Black Friday).

If you didn’t already know, Black Friday has become a retail behemoth that has infected the world and its inhabitants. While it has had a positive effect on e-commerce and brick & mortar retail sales, Black Friday has also begun to eat away at the souls of planet Earth—causing humans to care less about their families and more about getting the year’s best deals. It’s essentially the zombie apocalypse, with a horde of undead shoppers staggering from store to store, searching to fill a void that can never be filled.

But don’t give up on humanity just yet! REI and other retailers have the cure for this sickness. For the third consecutive year, the #OptOutside campaign is delivering humans an alternative to the retail madness. They’re even providing an interactive inoculation for the infection: Visitors to the REI website can search for activities based on a specific location and view photos of real people enjoying outdoor activities posted on Instagram with #OptOutside.

REI and other retailers have communicated their mission through a plethora of other marketing channels too, all geared towards making a stand and officially closing their stores for Black Friday. Rather than lurking in the dark waiting to stampede into stores, Black Friday is quickly becoming an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. The #OptOutside campaign has become a real movement to take back the planet (or at the very least the United States) and we have REI to thank for it.

The real question is, are you teaming up with the zombie horde or the outdoor survivors this Black Friday?