You will no doubt be aware that the Atheist Bus Ad campaign in England is well under way. Generally the campaign has be positively recieved with some christian churches being quite gracious in their responses. It seems that at least the English have retained their sense of humour.
The same campaingn launched in Australia has met with controversy and a complaint to the anti-discrimination commission.
This from the Telegraph (the UK paper apparently local Australian rags are a bit slow on the uptake):
Secular groups in Australia wanted to put the posters on local public transport after being inspired by the campaign in Britain, which took to the streets this week after raising £140,000 in donations.
They hoped to put adverts on the back of buses with slogans stating “atheism – celebrate reason” or “atheism – sleep in on Sunday mornings”.
But the proposed campaign was rejected by APN Outdoor, the country’s biggest outdoor advertising company.
David Nicholls, president of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, said: “I am flabbergasted. This is extremely disappointing and a severe blow to freedom of expression in Australia.
“Australia is going to look provincial and narrow in outlook to the rest of the world because of this decision. The planet is moving to a more enlightened era but apparently, public transport advertising agents in Australia have missed the bus.”
A similar plan for atheist bus adverts in Tasmania was thrown out by the state-owned bus company, Metro, which is set to lead to legal action on the grounds that it is discriminatory.
Metro has previously allowed adverts from religious groups including anti-abortion campaigners, but says it has now changed its policy to ban all material deemed controversial.
A spokesman said: “We try to apply it equitably to all people that wish to advertise on our buses.”
So yes Australian’s and particularly Tasmanian’s seem to have lost their sense of humour.
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there is a good article in today's SMH http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/atheist-messa...
Did you here that Christain Voice have their panties in a knot over this?
[...] “atheist bus” campaigns promulgate their way across the UK and several other countries (except Australia it seems) Stephen Green, head honcho of Christian Fundie Wingnuts Inc. Christian Voice has decided [...]
[...] Atheist Bus Adverts- Has Australia lost its sense of humor? | Sean … [...]
That is so freakin' funny! I would die laughing if I drove by a bus with that ad! Awesome! I love the one about sleeping in on Sunday mornings! Thanks for a much needed giggle! It's a shame the ad agency has rejected this.
No we can have half naked women on the side of a bus giving everyone "bedroom eyes" but the minute there is a suggestion about calling into question god. They have scruples over appropriate content for the public
At least you guys have a chance in hell of getting a popular one started without the frelling death threats. Washington frelling D.C. buses are causing the christian to go frelling insane.
I think the AFA get a regular round of death threats
Interesting ones or the "blah-blah ill kill your blasphemous ass" ones?
I'm your man from England I guess! I've been following the campaign very closely. When I return to London next week I'll see if I can get my own personal photo of this great ad. Spoke to a friend from Sussex today and she saw one of the ads on the train.
Did you hear that Christain Voice have their panties in a knot over this?
You guys have got to stop trying to out-USA the USA. Religious stupidity is one area in which the rest of the world should just humor Americans and willingly let them (us) actually be number one at something.
one word: Turkey
Many words: Turkey is even more religiously insane than we are… they have fucking BEHEADINGS…the christian sleaze that want to fuck our government can't even scratch sharia law.
It's our sportig culuture, the culture of the underdog, always fighting above our weight that drives us to such lengths
I still think the US is the best at outsourcing their dirty laundry.
Fair enough, but the aussies are best at shipping creatards/IDiots over here, and yes I do include new zealand as part of austrailia. If you guys send us another Comfort you may end up destroying the entire US, can you please start sending them to Russia or Iraq?
I thought we were sending the to their "spiritual "home.
please…just take comfort back…the bananas scare me.
Enshoku:
Pretty good word. I've no doubt that Turkey's earned a place ahead of the USA. Is Turkey #1, or is there another place that's even scarier?
The reason Turkey is scary is because it is a secular nation, but is composed of about 93% muslims, of which about 6% have decided to enact sharia law despite the secular status of the nation, and the government doesn't seem to care… stonings, beheadings, etc. all performed by a small minority, and the majority turns a blind eye. Its like a far more extreme US.
We finally have some Australian reporting on Atheism in Australia
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/atheist-messa...
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,24892640-421,00.h...
My reaction is to want to tell them to grow some, for effs sake >> 'nothing controversial' simply means 'don't want to pout up with the xtians telling us off'. Bah.
I actually thought that if something was controversial in generated publicity, which is kinda the point of advertising huh?
[...] planned on three continents (Europe, North America and South America). Sadly, a proposed campaign has been thwarted (thus far) in [...]