Atheists put faith in ‘God-free’ advertising
A number of reports at first suggested the Godless were reluctant to dip into their pockets in the time-honoured fashion of true believers. But that was before Professor Richard Dawkins, best-selling author of The God Delusion, stepped in with his offer to match all contributions up to a maximum of £5,500.
Bolding is mine.
The bold part still has me laughing. I have the book mentioned, I’m a fan of Dawkins. He manages to word things in an understanding, thoughtful way. I love the idea of this campaign, I know how many times I have been personally/ directly insulted due to my lacking of “belief”. I have to admit to being surprised at this campaign either way.
My understanding of the purpose of this advertising campaign is to level the playing field, if England is anything like America with advertising, then you see the “religious messages” everywhere. It’s understandable to want to also see a message that you can personally relate to.
I’m far from crying persecuted Atheist, it’s my “lack of” belief system, just as believing in a “higher power” is for someone else. The only part I’m having issues coming to terms is the different approach.
Using the power of Google to illustrate my point, a quick search in google images, this is the first relevant ad:
Christian advert:

Okay a tad fire and brimstone for my linking. I personally don’t believe in him, so I guess I’ll die. Quite the bummer, maybe their site will tell me otherwise.
Now, that kind of is a tad insulting, but no matter. I’ve been told worse. Going to the website listed JesusSaid.org tell us;
What are the consequences if you reject the answer?
God’s wrath includes the prospect of eternal punishment – it is appointed to men to die once and then comes the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). You will rise from the dead and will face the Judge and know that you rejected His kind and merciful answer. You will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in hell. Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and all his angels (demonic spirits) (Matthew 25: 41).
Bold is theirs.
Oh my. Well then, that is a predicament. You see, I need a tad more proof aside from threats from an old and dusty book. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. A bit fierce on the approach, but they do say these kinds of things are more for the believers anyway. Again, no matter. Doesn’t really change my mind or anything. Life shall continue.
Now the Atheist Campaign (click the image to go to the source);

Not exactly the most powerful words ever written, the probably isn’t exactly going to win over millions of not believers.
Even if I agree (well, even if quite a bit more strongly in my own convictions) again, these kinds of things aren’t for the “opposing viewpoint” anyway. Maybe they should work on the fear like the first one?
Although, the only thing that might incite is a bit of road rage, but hey it’s something right?
No, I am not advocating road rage
The message is about as powerful as anything I can come up with I suppose. Although, I think I’ve got a good one for Agnostics. “Eh” being the whole of the campaign simply with a picture of someone shrugging their shoulders. “RightToBeOnTheFence.com” could be their site.
You can take a look for yourself. That link is a google image result for “Atheist Advertising”, it’s a contest who can look the absolute silliest. I don’t think I can wade anymore through it all right now, so
I’m giving you the link. It’s a good old fashioned pi$$ing contest to be blunt (although a little entertaining, I will admit).
Seriously? I can out non believe the best of them, one way or another please keep up the adverts! They are at the very least entertaining. Atheists, please work on it.
Please, for the rest of us non believers you can do better. Work on some kind of rival logo or something. Hell, it was done with the Darwin fish, we can do it with this too.
Professor Dawkins is not amused…