Thursday, November 13, 2008

First Presentation

I met Ariane yesterday, organiser of the atheist bus campaign, to talk about what they might do next.

And I was lucky enough to be able to show her what I think are some very interesting ideas... produced by you lot.

I haven't attached names, since many prefer to remain anonymous.

But we had over 100 submissions in all, from Melbourne to China to New York. Thanks everyone.

Everything was looked at, discussed, and helped hone our thinking, so if you don't see your ad up here, that doesn't mean you didn't make a contribution. You did.

Let me know what you think of them...











8 comments:

Ted said...

The fake phone number is the only good piece.

Anonymous said...

I liked the first one the best. It made me chuckle.

Mike Reed said...

I don't think the 'funny' ones work (so far). The stuff about God not doing the washing up, or allowing fat arses, are trite and easily dismissed, frankly. If I were religious, these are the sorts of atheist posters I'd want to see going up.

The Logic idea seems strongest to me. It makes you think, it's bang on message and I like the strapline. The only problem is that it's so Christian (and Islamic) specific, but that's very hard to avoid.

It's ideas that crystallise sensible arguments in this way that get my vote.

I also think there's a hard-hitting campaign to be found in the child's simple, but unanswerable question, "If there's a God, then why do bad things happen?'

These shouldn't be man-made horrors, of course, or even perhaps natural disasters. But any merciful, loving God that creates some of the foul diseases we are prey to deserves all He gets.

So something like:

CHILDHOOD LEUKAEMIA.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOUR MERCIFUL, LOVING AND ALL-POWERFUL LORD.

While I'm here, I had another thought, along the logic lines, which was for a poster saying:

Old Testament:
THIS IS THE WORD OF GOD. INVIOLABLE, ABSOLUTE AND ETERNAL.

New Testment:
ERM, LISTEN, I'VE HAD A BIT OF A RETHINK.

Also Christian, but they do put up such big targets.

Anonymous said...

The ads shouldn’t be about persuading people there isn’t a God, or mocking people who think there is. Believing in God is a private matter and it’s fine if people want to. The thing to fight against is the privileging of religion in society, or the harmful effects that religious belief has when imposed on others:

For example:

An all-powerful God doesn’t need 26 seats in the House of Lords.

or:

Calling a child Christian, Muslim or Hindu is wrong. Sorry, it just is.

or:

Your right to ban abortion is equal to my right to ban singing hymns.

dangermain said...

Cain and Abel works for me

Anonymous said...

Scamp, is it too late to contribute?

Scamp said...

No, not too late. We've had the first meeting but there will be others I'm sure.

Anca said...

Oh, Happy Day -- Revisited