Haydain Neale, 1970–2009
Transit City and Transit Cities
Peeve Patrol
Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Making of a Medley
It's almost as though the world's atheists want their opinions acknowledged or something. After news broke a week and a half ago that a group called the Freethought Association of Canada was planning to bring bus ads to Toronto that read "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," a campaign wholly copied from the godless Brits, those ads are one step closer to turning up on the side of your favourite TTC vehicle.
After obliterating their financial goal—they had aimed to raise $7,000 by May but have raised three times that already—the Freethought Association annnounced this morning that the TTC gave the ad's wording the go-ahead. Brad Ross, the TTC's Director of Communications, confirmed to Torontoist this afternoon that the transit system "approved the copy" but that they "have not seen the ad, itself." After ad company CBS Outdoor and the Freethought Association take care of some paperwork, the TTC will decide whether or not the ad runs (so no Piss Christ–type stuff, Atheist Bus people!).
When BlogTO wrote about the buses earlier today, they asked their readers: "Would you like to see the atheist ad campaign on the TTC?" But a better question might be: "Does it really matter here?" When Barack Obama, who is probably not the devil, said in his inauguration speech that America is "a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus—and nonbelievers," the inclusion of that last noun was a brave and unprecedented acknowledgment of an oft-maligned minority in that country. But in Canada, where a quarter of us just straight-up don't believe in God or a god and less than a third of us are "highly religious," and in Toronto, which almost certainly has levels of religious devotion far lower than the national norm, it seems a little silly to get so excited about putting a slogan that most of us already agree with on the side of a bus. But hey, Calgary's next!
Hat tip to CanCult.
This article originally stated that "Brad Ross, the TTC's Director of Communications, confirmed to Torontoist...that the transit system 'approved the copy' but that they 'have not seen the ad, itself,' and that ad company CBS Outdoor will ultimately be the ones to decide if it runs." That conclusion was based on Ross telling us earlier today that "CBS Outdoor handles this for us. No word on when (or if) [the ad] will run—again that's between [the Freethought Association] and CBS." But that conclusion was a false one; Ross clarified tonight (both via e-mail and in our comments) that it is "the TTC [that] decides, not CBS. They'll do the contract and placement of the ad, but all approvals reside with us—and ultimately the Commission, if it were to come to that."
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Right or not, it's crappy advertising.
If I understand right, most atheists have beef with religious dogma and the prejudice and discrimination it can lead to. They argue rationalism should be sufficient for people to be decent to one another. This is reasonable; it's harder to sympathize with "screw Jesus, let's party!"
Maybe, "Now stop hating and be nice to people," isn't cheeky enough to be ad copy in 2009, but the current text is just begging to be branded Hedonism Wow!
It's as if YouTube comment culture has made its way into advertising. What do you think the response ad campaign will be?
To be clear, the TTC decides, not CBS Outdoor, which ads run on the system. CBS will process the contract, placement, etc., but they do not have the final say. That rests with the TTC and, ultimately, the Commission.
Brad Ross
Director - Corporate Communications
TTC
I just appended a correction above to clear that up; thanks as always Brad.
The wording was chosen to be accepted by London's transit ad authority's rules regarding (commercial) claims and assertions.
"The wording was chosen to be accepted by London's transit ad authority's rules regarding (commercial) claims and assertions."
Yes, but their choice to accept it was immediately challenged (somewhat petulantly). More on that, and the surrounding debate, here: http://londonist.com/2009/01/asa_to_assess_accuracy_of_atheist_a.php
Nice. It's about time this is got here.
Paul Kishimoto, are you kidding?
This is fucking great. I'm so sick of christianist dogma, and the sundry other religious dogmas I'm forced to be quietly respectful of in Toronto. Just cause we atheists don't really have dogma to shove down your throats doesn't mean we don't want you to experience the uncomfortable feeling of having to be respectful of an opinion you think is total bullshit.
Tolerate this.
If you don't like it, you can skip it and read the next bus.
Londonist likes the atheist buses. Some drivers don't.
unfortunately I've met a few athesits who certainly do have a dogma to shove down people's throats and are pretty evangelical about it. I think most of these ads avoid that stance though.