Really, really, really inoffensive "Atheists." bus ad rejected [View all]

[muriel_volestrangler]

Last edited Wed Feb 29, 2012, 02:23 PM - Edit history (1)

On 1/30/12, I proposed an idea inspired by Richard Wade writing for the Friendly Atheist blog and atheist activist Carl Silverman to run a really, really, really inoffensive bus advertisement. Many atheist advertisement campaigns have been considered 'offensive' by religious individuals and some atheists, including myself, have wondered what exactly offended. Was is the mere fact that atheists making their presence known offensive to religious people? Perhaps the word "atheist" offends people? To 'test' this and to advertise the NEPA Freethought Society -- a local community group of non-theists in Northeastern PA -- and American Atheists, I contacted the County of Lackawanna Transit System (COLTS) with serious intentions to run the bus ad you can see above.

After announcing my idea, various persons have stepped forward to donate money to make these ads a reality, but I had told persons that it would be best to wait for the bus company -- which receives county, state, and federal funding -- to confirm whether they would run the ads. I was told that the board of directors for COLTS needed to meet and decide whether they would run the ad...and after a long wait of 15 days, COLTS refused the ad although this meeting certainly wasn't public if it even happened at all because meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month.

Jim Smith, the advertising contact at COLTS, said that the reason for refusal -- appealing to the very questionable and vague advertising policy of COLTS -- was that COLTS does not accept ads which could be deemed controversial or otherwise spark public debate.

Funny, that is. COLTS runs "God Bless America" on their scrolling tickers which are supposed to relay route information and has also run an ad saying "Consider adoption...it works!" Interestingly enough, the "Consider adoption...it works!" ad has been REMOVED from COLTS' website (you can, though, see a picture of it below); the ad was previously in the gallery of sample ads, but it is no longer there. An ad for "Old Forge News" -- an overtly political site containing links to Holocaust denialist websites and white supremacist information -- had also appeared on COLTS' buses.

http://www.justinvacula.com/2012/02/really-really-really-inoffensive.html

So it would seem the very acknowledgement of the existence of atheists is 'controversial' to the bus company?

On edit: there may be confusion between "Old Forge News" and "Old Forge Times". The former is an apparently harmless news website for the Old Forge area; the latter is the far right cesspool. Vacula's front page says "Times"; the individual blog thread says 'News'. The American Atheists' letter to COLTS says "Times". Until it's clear which of the two was advertised on the buses, that part of the 'double standard' accusation should be 'unproven', IMO. The 'God Bless America' and 'Consider adoption...it works!' banners/ads are definite, though.

The ad was indeed for the racist website - the photo of it is on COLTS' own website: http://coltsbus.com/PricingFrontAd3Pop.html