wongaBlog like balloons, but with dancing
The Atheist Billboard Campaign launched today. It’s the second phase of the Atheist Bus Campaign, and sees large billboards in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. Here’s the London one: Isn’t it cool? The message will be familiar to anyone familiar with Richard Dawkins’ writings: it’s wrong to label children with concepts beyond their understanding. The labels shown in the background – ‘Catholic child’, ‘Muslim child’, ‘Atheist child’, ‘Post-modernist child’ etc. – should all stick in the throat, as there are no such things (the BHA’s campaign page goes into more detail on the divisive and coercive nature of labelling children ... Read More »
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Natural tobacco
October 20, 2009
I am reading Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear. It is an excellent book, with proper research-backed psychological examinations and explanations attempting to answer one question: “Why are the safest and healthiest people in history living in a culture of fear?”. I was planning to review it here once I’m done, but I just started its 10th chapter and it contains the craziest thing I have heard in a long time. In a book of double-takes, this, from a discussion on the words ‘chemical’ and ‘natural’, made my brain pull a muscle: It is this cultural re-definition of ‘chemical’ ... Read More »
God Loves You Yes!
May 14, 2009
A leaflet dropped through the letterbox this morning: There were a bunch on the hall table, all slightly different and clearly hand-drawn. Kinda sweet, really. Read More »
The Olympus OM1 gets the important shots
February 7, 2009
While leafing through copies of the Sunday Telegraph Magazine – 1975 – I came across this advert for the Olympus OM1: It’s a very fast camera, apparently. It can take shots other cameras would find impossible. It’s true! Here’s a close-up as proof: In my experience most camera adverts emphasise durability, quality, or ease of use. I’ve never seen one concentrate on ability-to-photograph-naked-women before1. That’s one of ‘ten everyday photographic problems’ I’ve yet to encounter. Do you think ‘one is obviously saleable. The other is not’ is tongue-in-cheek? I really can’t tell. I suspect you don’t need to be a ... Read More »
Christian comebacks to the Atheist Bus Campaign
February 5, 2009
The Atheist Bus Campaign adverts are coming down in the next few days, after an amazingly successful month. They’ve been a remarkable talking-point1, similar adverts are going up all around the world, and they annoyed, then embarrassed, Christian Voice. All great results, but they’re also apparently the vanguard for a wave of god-related banners: A trinity of Christian groups have created their own series of advertisements to run across London buses Fair enough, let’s see what they’ve got. Here’s the first, from the Christian Party: There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life. Quite the ... Read More »
Fight the offensive buses. Fight them.
January 17, 2009
So yesterday a bus driver turned up to work, saw a heathen message on the side of a bus, and had a strop. With arms folded, stamping his foot and scowling1 he threw all of his toys out of the pram and refused to work any more. His employers have been very understanding, probably because they’re scared witless of getting sued. As has been pointed out, I’m sure they’d have been just as accommodating towards a Labour supporter who refused to drive under Tory adverts. Obviously, this dude is an easy target: who the hell thinks bus drivers endorse adverts ... Read More »
Atheist Buses launched
January 6, 2009
I am extremely pleased to hear that the Atheist Bus Campaign has been a massive success. It raised over £135,000, from an original target of £5,500. Excellent. 800 buses were launched today: 200 in London, with the remaining ones spread out over England, Scotland and Wales. There are also 1000 Tube cards, with quotations from Douglas Adams, Albert Einstein, Emily Dickinson and Katharine Hepburn. Lovely. There’s been a bit of infighting over the slogan, what with us atheists being contrary by nature. I still like it. There’s also been some deeply entertaining commentary on us arrogant humanists pushing our agenda and being ... Read More »
The Atheist Bus
October 22, 2008
This morning a Comment is Free post (of all things) launched a campaign to counter religious advertising on London buses. Quite brilliantly, it’s already raised enough to buy space for an advert on 30 buses, which will say: There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. Love it. It’s in response to adverts for the Alpha Course, which linked to a website telling of the tremendous suffering that will come to unbelievers. That kind of thing really pisses me off. The Alpha Course isn’t on the fringes of UK Christianity – it’s everywhere. If it were all flowers ... Read More »
Quite frankly it’s the only way to pray
March 12, 2008
It’s difficult to be offended by hair straighteners. Maybe if they set fire to your head, but otherwise, what’s to mind? Well, 23 Christians apparently don’t like their adverts, and somehow convinced the generally-sensible Advertising Standards Authority to uphold their complaint. Here’s the advert (I don’t think it’s quite the banned one, but is close enough). Try to guess what the problem is: What’s the main issue? They used a cross in place of the letter t. A cross. This makes the baby Jesus cry. He didn’t die / not die / zombify on a cross so people could just ... Read More »
Jon Stewart on where to turn during the Hollywood writers’ strike
November 3, 2007
“While we’re not here…“ Read More »