Atheists launch bus ad campaign
Posted on March 5th, 2010 by admin
The atheist bus journey
by Ariane Sherine, Guardian
Thanks to you we raised enough money to put ads on 800 buses across the UK, and the campaign has gone global
Today, thanks to many Cif readers, the overall total raised for the Atheist Bus Campaign stands at a truly overwhelming £135,000, breaking our original target of £5,500 by over 2400%. Given this unexpected amount, I’m very excited to tell you that 800 buses instead of the 30 we were initially aiming for are now rolling out across the UK with the slogan, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”, in locations all over England, Scotland and Wales, including Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, York, Cardiff, Devon, Leeds, Bristol and Aberdeen.
From today’s launch, two hundred of the buses will run in London, because the campaign was originally started as a positive counter-response to the Jesus Said ads running on London buses in June 2008. These ads displayed the URL of a website which stated that non-Christians “will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire prepared for the devil”. Our rational slogan will hopefully reassure anyone who has been scared by this kind of evangelism.
In addition, we’re running adverts on two further types of media. In my last Cif blog on the campaign, I asked Cif readers for ideas on alternative ways to spend the funds, and also for thoughts on different slogans. Commenters WoollyMindedLiberal, PaoloV and Catch22 suggested that we use quotes from famous freethinkers, and we’ve done just that: from Monday January 12, 1,000 tube cards will run on London Underground featuring atheist quotations from Douglas Adams, Albert Einstein, Emily Dickinson and Katharine Hepburn (see above), alongside the original campaign slogan.
An animated version of the slogan will also appear on two large LCD screens on Oxford Street (opposite Bond Street tube station), so that you can see the advert live without having to wait for an atheist bus. And, to thank all donors and show the strength of atheism in the UK, every ABC advertisement will contain the line “This advert was funded by public donations”.
Amazingly, the campaign has now gone international. Spain’s Union of Atheists and Freethinkers are launching buses across Barcelona today with a translation of our slogan, Italy’s Union of Atheist, Agnostics and Rationalists are also planning to roll out atheist buses, while the American Humanist Association have been inspired to launch a campaign, and buses carrying their slogan “Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness’ sake” have now been running for over a month in Washington DC. Sadly, not every country has been so open to the idea: the Atheist Foundation of Australia tried to place the slogan “Atheism celebrate reason” on buses, but were rejected by Australia’s biggest outdoor advertising company.
The campaign’s success is thanks to Cif and Cif readers. If Matt Seaton hadn’t allowed me to run with the idea here, and so many of you hadn’t been so enthusiastic about it and donated generously to it, it would never have happened. There may be further campaign developments, and the campaign website and Facebook group will be regularly updated with the latest news; but for now, I hope you enjoy seeing the adverts on the streets, and that they brighten these bleak January days just a little bit. As Charlie Brooker one of the first people to donate to the Atheist Bus Campaign says: “Public transport in Britain suggests there isn’t a God anyway, but in case anyone hasn’t noticed, or feels isolated for thinking such a thing, this campaign should help.” I hope it does.
The Official Atheist Bus Campaign Website: http://www.atheistbus.org.uk/
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March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
this wasn’t allowed …
this wasn’t allowed in Australia
disappointed in my own country
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Beautiful. Keep up …
Beautiful. Keep up the good work mates!
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
hilda’s an idiot. …
hilda’s an idiot. Not worth your time
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
haha this ad …
haha this ad brought more people to the alpha course.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
British accents are …
British accents are so sexy.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Damn shes hot
shes hot
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Oh so your aloud to …
Oh so your aloud to fav all the ads you want for religion but we put one ad up and your calling us “not real people”. typical christians right there
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Very good! Keep up …
Very good! Keep up the good job, fellow atheists!
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
So God isn’t evil …
So God isn’t evil then?
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
To deny the …
To deny the existence of God is to favor evil. The slogan Theres probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life implies that there is a struggle deep inside the heart of the formulators of such a slogan. However they are trying to shrug it off, because they want to find a way of escape from feeling guilty in their heart due to all the evil they are doing.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
The formulators of …
The formulators of such slogans are trying to escape all these realities because they are not real people
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
“These adverts are …
“These adverts are doing exactly what you are accusing religious people of. They are evangelizing atheism to the masses. No person is forcing you to be religious.”
I beg to differ. I know many people who were forced by their families to go to church and were punished if they said they didn’t believe in god- many people.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I’m yet to see one …
I’m yet to see one of these buses but I’m not often in the centre of the capital.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Woooooow let’s see …
Woooooow let’s see this statement a bit. Jesus COMMANDED us? He promotes love and all that good yet he COMMANDS people to love a megalomaniac murderer? Yep, Jesus is all about love.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Your dad is a smart …
Your dad is a smart man then.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
youll get your self …
youll get your self assisinated
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Interesting. So a …
Interesting. So a campaign was started promoting Nothing. Thats not irony but I can’t put my finger on how strange that really is. It’s like starting a business but having an empty store. Funny. hehe.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Goddamn richard …
richard dawkin’s manner of speech is identical to my dad’s.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Do you mean that? …
Do you mean that? If so, thanks!
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I know – freedom of …
I know – freedom of speech in this country seems redefined as “we religious people want the freedom to control who gets to speak and who doesn’t!”
Doesn’t hurt to try, though – i’ve always wanted to print out little informative posters and place them around town. There’s a church on almost every corner of this city i’m in.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
haha in America if …
haha in America if you put up a billboard the company is likely to remove it… and if you put up a sign calling religion ‘myth and superstition’ amongst christmas festivities, it goes missing.
Much less cover buses…
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
i love how alot of …
i love how alot of thiests are already commenting and saying how its wrong and how we should repent already
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
you my friend are …
you my friend are pretty stupid, lets take a look to the past to see wat religion has brought us in the past and future: war, violence, hate. those are just the main categories of lists that can go on forever
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
you are pretty much …
you are pretty much the only theist i respect completely.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
stop repeating …
stop repeating yourself and stop spewing your religious bullshit around because no one my friend i repeat no one wants to hear it