A week after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled in favour of the Atheist Bus Campaign adverts rather than the complainants (who included Christian Voice), they have stated that Christian Voice is no longer allowed to run adverts making unsubstantiated claims against the HPV vaccine, which protects young girls from cervical cancer.
Here’s the full ruling:
Ad
An advertising feature in the New Statesman, on behalf of a religious group, had the headline “VIOLENT CRIME – SOWING AND REAPING”. Text underneath stated “There is a Biblical principle that we reap what we sow. It applies to nations as well as to individuals. What politicians sow, the people reap. When politicians sow evil, the people reap misery, and the poorest reap it the worst”. The ad went on to describe what the advertisers considered to be the detrimental impact of government policies and various pieces of legislation on society. It included the text “Now we have the disaster of teenage infertility. Every government initiative, including the HPV vaccine, will increase it, but as all the targets revolve around pregnancy, no-one in power knows how many young people they are making sterile and nobody cares”. Text at the bottom of the ad stated “Christian Voice. Working for Godly government; praying for national repentance”.
Issue
One complainant challenged whether the implied claim that the HPV vaccine would result in teenage infertility was misleading and could be substantiated.
The CAP Code: 3.1;7.1;2.2
Response
Christian Voice argued that the claim was an expression of their opinion, and that their right to express that opinion was protected by The Human Rights Act 1998.
Christian Voice provided a link to a page on their website, which they said gave evidence of the failure of the government’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy. They said it was clear from national statistics that the approach of successive governments on teenage sexuality have preceded, or at least coincided with, growing levels of teenage conceptions, abortions and sexually-transmitted infections.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted Christian Voice’s response. We considered, however, that the claim “Every government initiative, including the HPV vaccine, will increase it [teenage infertility]” was a statement of fact that was a matter open to substantiation. We noted the webpage submitted by Christian Voice, but we did not consider that that webpage in itself was sufficient to support the claim. Because we had not seen robust, scientific evidence that the HPV vaccine caused infertility in teenagers, we concluded that the claim had not been substantiated and was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Principles), 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Christian Voice not to repeat the implied claim that the HPV vaccine would result in teenage infertility.
The UK Advertising Standards Authority has ruled in our favour, decided not to investigate the 326 complaints about the Atheist Bus Campaign adverts, and closed the case. Hurray!
It’s a great day for freedom of speech in Britain. Atheists are officially allowed to be represented in public for the very first time (adverts are not pre-vetted by legal organisations before they go up) and a rational counter-view can now be visible at any point to balance out evangelical advertising.
Most people have recognised that ours is a gentle, philosophical advert aimed at non-believers and fearful agnostics. We’re really pleased that the ASA has recognised this too. At last, we have a truly free voice – and it feels good.
Ron Heather is the Christian bus driver who has refused to drive the UK atheist buses, creating a news story which has been in the press a lot over the past 24 hours. He and I have something in common: we’ve both taken exception to websites promoting belief systems different to our own.
The website I took issue with was JesusSaid.org, advertised on buses and tube cards in June last year, which – as you can read here – promotes the idea of God’s wrath and eternal punishment. It insists:
“God’s wrath includes the prospect of eternal punishment – it is appointed to men to die once and then comes the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). You will rise from the dead and will face the Judge and know that you rejected His kind and merciful answer. You will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in hell. Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and all his angels.”
Our adverts were designed to counter these rather alarming ideas.
Conversely, the website Mr Heather didn’t like much was… er… this one. The Guardianrevealed today that “Heather said he had been particularly offended by the name of the website featured on the ad, atheistcampaign.org.”
Maybe the words “atheist” and “campaign” unsettled him for some reason, but they really shouldn’t have, because this campaign is as gentle as any. I truly don’t think he’s visited this site, because we’ve taken great care to make it very peaceful and upbeat (as we have with the entire campaign). We wanted to create a calm place where people could talk freely about their beliefs – the very opposite of JesusSaid.org, in fact. We believe in freedom of speech, so we rarely delete comments, but the main content of this site is very mild, friendly and straightforward.
If Ron ever does visit, he’ll be very welcome here. But somehow we don’t think he will.
Here’s the quote I gave to the press yesterday:
“We live in a democratic society, which will only function as such if we are allowed to peacefully express different viewpoints. The bus companies have accepted the adverts, and nobody imagines that bus drivers wholeheartedly endorse everything advertised on the sides of the buses they drive.“
And lastly, I was really excited to be asked to give the first non-religious Thought For The Afternoon on Radio 4 last Saturday. You can listen to it here at 4.35 minutes in:
The presenters of Australia’s biggest television show, Sunrise, are not just very funny and great with puns – they’re also the most freethinking people I’ve come across in TV since the start of the campaign! Watch this and feel hopeful…
If you can speak Castillian or Catalan then please check out Bus Ateo, the site of the atheist buses in Madrid and Barcelona. If you’re in the United States then atheist buses with ads in a different style have appeared in Washington. If you’re keen on organising similar campaigns in other countries please do drop us a line via the contact page and we can put you in touch with humanists in the relevant countries.
We’ll also be doing a comprehensive press and blog review over the next 48 hours. We’ll manage to cover the mainstream media and blogs in English, French and German and some people have already sent us links (like this excellent list of the Spanish and Italian coverage) but if you’ve yourself written something, or have seen something interesting please comment here or contact us.
A week after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled in favour of the Atheist Bus Campaign adverts rather than the complainants (who included Christian Voice), they have stated that Christian Voice is no longer allowed to run adverts making unsubstantiated claims against the HPV vaccine, which protects young girls from cervical cancer.
