Atheist Bus moves on...

[Darwinian]

http://www.humanism.org.uk/billboards

[Tiberius]

Blogged: http://atheistblogger.com/2009/11/19/all...-billboard

This is a great idea for a campaign!

[leo-rcc]

I don't share your enthusiasm here I'm afraid. This advert is a lot weaker than the previous one. The message it is trying to convey is lost on people just walking down the street that are not aware of the background of this campaign.

edit: I just sent the picture of the billboard, (and nothing else) to a colleague who is not aware of the campaign and asked him if he could tell me what the advert is trying to tell us, and he did not get it. I am pretty sure I can do this to 50 colleagues and the results would be the same.

[downbeatplumb]

I don't share your enthusiasm here I'm afraid. This advert is a lot weaker than the previous one. The message it is trying to convey is lost on people just walking down the street that are not aware of the background of this campaign.

edit: I just sent the picture of the billboard, (and nothing else) to a colleague who is not aware of the campaign and asked him if he could tell me what the advert is trying to tell us, and he did not get it. I am pretty sure I can do this to 50 colleagues and the results would be the same.

good point, but its still a step in the right direction.

[Meatball]

I'm with Leo here. While I love the idea behind it, and that's one facet of the debate that I feel is very important, it's not effective in this ad.

I'm not sure if there is a way to present this position in a eye-catching, easily understood way.

Maybe something that works on a more visual level:

Code:

(image of lamp)   (image of car)   (image of baby)
Muslim Lamp     Pagan car      Catholic child

Can a lamp pray? Does a car worship? What does a baby know about religion?

I'm not in marketing, but something along those lines might be more effective, IMO.

[Pope Alfred]

OK, it lacks the instant punch of a one-liner, but it is likely to get thinking people reading.
Anyhow, to my mind the 'probably' in the bus poster was a big mistake - it weakened it so much. Maybe this one will do more good overall.

[Rhizomorph13]

Meatball,

Good idea! I too think the original ad is too subtle and would only be understood by people well versed in the topic so it would be lost on those it is trying to reach. Your idea would be a step in the right direction.

Another direction to go might be to show parents with easily identifiable jobs (judge for example) with their children with a comment along the lines of, "Your child isn't a judge just because you are, so what makes you think he/she shares your religion?"

Rhizo

---

OK, it lacks the instant punch of a one-liner, but it is likely to get thinking people reading.
Anyhow, to my mind the 'probably' in the bus poster was a big mistake - it weakened it so much. Maybe this one will do more good overall.

Yeah, but the "probably" is in the ad to make it a rational statement. There is no way to prove a negative or know beyond a doubt that something doesn't exist. Some, me include, would say that gnostic atheism is just as irrational as gnostic theism.

Rhizo

[Pope Alfred]

Yeah, but the "probably" is in the ad to make it a rational statement. There is no way to prove a negative or know beyond a doubt that something doesn't exist. Some, me include, would say that gnostic atheism is just as irrational as gnostic theism.

True, but it still left a weak statement. Maybe they should have used something else entirely.

[Tiberius]

OK, it lacks the instant punch of a one-liner, but it is likely to get thinking people reading.
Anyhow, to my mind the 'probably' in the bus poster was a big mistake - it weakened it so much. Maybe this one will do more good overall.

The "probably" strengthened it, making it a more intellectually honest statement. Then the Christian response decided to make the absurd absolutist statement "There definitely is." and they got all the flack

[Amphora]

Subtle approaches are good to make it out to the masses/people. If the people who did these billboards wanted to do a subtle approach that was their idea. Which I think is good.

Probably more often than not if the organizers put something slightly different, some people would have taken offense to it.

And as far as advertising goes people in general like eye-catching stuff.

I would second the ad that Meatball has here it's a better approach IMO.