Christian bus campaign gets ten times more complaints than atheist one 3

Fundraising | Vibeka Mair | 30 Mar 2009

A pro-Christian advert responding to the atheist bus campaign has become the fourth most complained-about advert in the history of the Advertising Standards Authority.

The Christian Party ran adverts last month on buses with the headline: “There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life.”

It attracted 1,133 complaints, almost ten times the number received for the atheist advert organised by the British Humanist Society. The most cited reasons for complaining was that the ads were offensive to atheists and that the Christians couldn’t substantiate their claims.

Two other pro-Christian campaigns, from the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Russian Orthodox Church, also drew objections from the public, said the ASA.

The Trinitarian Society received 191 complaints about its £35,000 campaign featuring the headline: ‘The fool hath said in his heart there is no God’, while the Russian Orthodox Church’s campaign stating: ‘There is a God, BELIEVE. Don’t worry and enjoy your life’, drew 53 complaints.

An ASA spokeswoman said it could not investigate the Christian Party as it was considered to be a political advert which was outside its remit. However, she said it was unlikely that it would have investigated the adverts anyway as it would be considered a statement of opinion. The ASA declined to investigate the Trinitarian Society, the Russian Orthodox Church and the British Humanist Association for this reason.

The British Humanist Association’s atheist campaign ran on buses and tubes earlier this year, with the headline: ‘There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’

More than 100 complaints were received by the ASA about the campaign.

Read Vibeka's blog - Why are the beliefs of Christians judged as more offensive than atheists?

Who's Who: Vibeka Mair

Place a comment

Jane
Head of Fundraising
19 Mar 2009

Why are Christians and Humanists spending so much money on trying to force their views on the public? Couldn't the resources spent on such pointless advertising have been better spent on humanitarian work?

I can assure both sides that virtually no-one is going to form an existential opinion on the strength of a bus slogan, and even if they did, how is that useful to anyone?

[Reply]

Simon
16 Jun 2011
Response to [Jane]

Jane, I suspect the initial ad was run to get people talking. Job done.

[Reply]

Tracey
18 Mar 2009

Surely the point is that one ad said there's probably no God - nothing absolute about the statement, so no proof needed. The other said there defintiely is a God which sounds to me like a statement of fact, but where's the proof?

[Reply]

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