Atheist Bus Campaign
bus ad campaign that started in Great Britain
The Atheist Bus Campaign was an advertising campaign in 2008 and 2009 that aimed to place "peaceful and upbeat" messages about atheism on transport media in Britain, in response to evangelical Christian advertising.
It was created by comedy writer Ariane Sherine and launched on 21 October 2008, with official support from the British Humanist Association and Richard Dawkins. The campaign's original goal was to raise £5,500 to run 30 buses across London for four weeks early in 2009 with the slogan: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, agreed to match all donations up to a maximum of £5,500, providing a total of £11,000 if the full amount were to be raised. The campaign reached that target by 10:06 am on 21 October and had raised £100,000 by the evening of 24 October. The campaign closed on 11 April 2009, having raised a total of £153,523.51.
The first buses started running on 6 January 2009 – 800 ran around the UK and it was also planned to place 1,000 adverts on the London Underground featuring quotations from famous atheists. There were also two large LCD screens placed on Oxford Street, central London. The campaign received a number of complaints, but was cleared of any unethical advertising by the ASA.
Initial proposal
Sherine first proposed the campaign in June 2008 in a guardian.co.uk Comment is Free blog post, Atheists – gimme five in the Guardian. She expressed her frustration that the Christian organisation JesusSaid.org was allowed to use bus advertising to promote the web address of a website that said that all non-Christians would burn in hell for all eternity.
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