Posts with the tag 'Richard Dawkins'
A number of people have concerns about the slogan containing the word ‘probably‘. There’s also a lively debate about this at our Facebook Group Discussion Board. I’ll quote what Ariane wrote there:
…transport advertising regulations are more stringent than normal advertising regulations (for billboards, etc) and the decision of whether to run the ad or not is very much at the discretion of the bus companies. It’s their private space, and their criteria for this (I know it’ll make all atheists reading this bang their head against a wall, but here goes) is that the advert “must not offend religious people”.
In their view, the “probably” gets us around this (and even with it, I’m anticipating that the Advertising Standards Authority will receive several dozen complaints from religious people and organisations). Also, as Dawkins writes in The God Delusion, being an absolute “7″ on the faith scale (insisting “there is no God”) doesn’t make sense, as nobody can ever state this as an absolute. The alternative Dawkins proposes is “almost certainly”, but “there’s almost certainly no God” doesn’t make for an overly catchy advertising slogan!
In short our priority is to get these ads out on the buses, to get people thinking about atheism. That’s the major goal. So we hope plenty more people can back our efforts to reach that goal!
Tags: Advertising, Atheism, Bus, Facebook, Probably, Richard Dawkins, Slogan, Transport, Wording
21.10.08
It has been a manic first day for the atheist bus campaign – we surged past the £5500 donation target a little after 10am and the more money that gets donated the more buses with atheist adverts we’ll be able to pay for. Thanks to all that have donated, and please keep on donating!
As well as Ariane’s Comment is Free article we’ve also received some decent press coverage of our efforts:
Online we’ve been covered by The Register, politics.co.uk, The First Post, Brand Republic and tens of bloggers.
Tags: ABC, Atheist Bus, BBC, Comment Is Free, Donations, Justgiving, Press, Richard Dawkins, Telegraph, The Guardian
21.10.08
** We reached the total at 1006 BST (GMT+1) on 21st October, just over 10 hours after launch – thank you so much to everyone who contributed! If you haven’t donated yet and would like to then please do – we are now aiming to launch a full advertising campaign across the UK! **
The Atheist Bus Campaign launches today, Tuesday October 21. With your support, we hope to raise £5,500 to run 30 buses across the capital for four weeks with the slogan: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Donate online now!
Professor Richard Dawkins, bestselling author of The God Delusion, is officially supporting the Atheist Bus Campaign, and has generously agreed to match all donations up to a maximum of £5,500, giving us a total of £11,000 if we reach the full amount – enough for a much bigger campaign. Our campaign partner, the British Humanist Association, will be administering all donations.
With your help, we can brighten people’s days on the way to work, help raise awareness of atheism in the UK, and hopefully encourage more people to come out as atheists. We can also counter the religious adverts which are currently running on London buses, and help people think for themselves.
As Richard Dawkins says: “This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think – and thinking is anathema to religion.”
Tags: Atheism, Atheist Bus Campaign, Donation, Donations, Fundraising, Humour, London Buses, Richard Dawkins, Slogan, Thank You
21.10.08
Welcome to AtheistCampaign.org! Our aim is to raise the profile of atheism through innovative and exciting advocacy projects, starting with the Atheist Bus Campaign.
We’ve linked to all the leading atheist, humanist and secular organisations and initiatives. Please visit them to learn more about the resources and support available to non-religious people. You can join the BHA or NSS (or FFRF if you’re in the US), subscribe to New Humanist magazine (or Free Inquiry), renounce your religion, and maybe even decide to set up your own atheist blog (if you do, let us know). If you’d like your site to be included on this list, please write to us using the form on the contact page.
We’ve also enabled comments to encourage discussion of all campaigns and topics. We hope you enjoy AtheistCampaign.org, and look forward to your suggestions for changes and new campaigns.
Tags: Atheist, Atheist Bus, Campaign, Fundraising, Humanist, New Humanist, Resources, Richard Dawkins, Secular, Support, Website
14.10.08
