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Humanists unveil new billboard campaign 2

Fundraising | Tania Mason | 23 Nov 2009

The British Humanist Association has used the money leftover from its Atheist Bus campaign to unveil some high-profile billboard posters that suggest children shouldn’t be saddled with a religion until they are old enough to choose for themselves.

The ‘Don’t label me’ campaign posters display some of the labels routinely applied to children that imply beliefs such as ‘Catholic’, ‘Protestant’, ‘Muslim’ or ‘Hindu’ mixed up together with labels that people would never apply to young children such as ‘Marxist’, ‘Anarchist’, ‘Socialist’, or ‘Humanist’. In front of the shadowy labels are happy children, with the slogan ‘Please don’t label me. Let me grow up and choose for myself’ in the font of the Atheist Bus Campaign.

The billboards, located at high-impact advertising positions in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, were unveiled last week to coincide with the United Nations’ Universal Children’s Day on 20 November. 

The campaign attracted immediate support from magician and illusionist Derren Brown, author Philip Pullman, and musician and comedian Tim Minchin. Minchin helped the news of the campaign become one of the top ten most popular stories circulating on Twitter by tweeting about it.

Within a day of the campaign launching more than 500,000 hits were recorded to the Association’s website. 

Derren Brown wrote on his blog that the campaign focuses on “one unpleasant aspect of proselytising to children: the resultant labelling of tiny kids as ‘Christian’, ‘Muslim’ etc, in a way that we would never do with, say, political affiliations (labelling a small child ‘Conservative’, for example, seems very wrong). ‘Atheist’ is of course also included as an equally regrettable label to be attached to a child: the message is, to allow children to choose for themselves when they are old enough to decide.”

Bob Churchill, BHA web manager, said: “The public support for this campaign has matched that of the Atheist Bus campaign, but it has a different character.

“With the buses many people expressed a kind of relief at seeing a light-hearted, positive atheist message in the public space. But reading the emails from members, comments on blogs and our social networking sites, the billboards strike a more sensitive nerve with a lot of people. They have a strong moral objection to any attempt to ‘box’ children in to a hereditary belief system. We’ve heard from a lot of parents, teachers and former pupils of religious schools.”

The new ‘Don't Label Me’ Facebook group has grown to more than 800 members.

The billboards will remain up for two weeks. The BHA has launched a fundraising campaign to coincide with the billboard campaign which will raise money for its campaign to phase out state-funded faith schools.

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