This morning (a little surprisingly early) I had an interview about the campaign on Kiwi FM…
Following this I also had a chat about the campaign on the Breakfast Show with Spanky on Christchurch’s RDU station…
24 comments 14.12.09
Yesterday was a huge day for the campaign in media coverage, donations, and discussion online and on the radio. I’d like to throw out a big thank you to all those who donated and all those who emailed in positive messages of support, or suggestions for improving and expanding the campaign. Much appreciated!
Just to reiterate, our new target is $20,000. We’re nearly three quarters of the way there and still climbing!
Please continue to support/share the campaign on Facebook, on Twitter, and just by talking to friends and family about it. That is one of the main points after all – to raise awareness of atheism and humanism in NZ. To show that it’s perfectly fine to not believe in a deity and that you can be good without one.
49 comments 12.12.09
Due to the amazing response so far, we have decided to double our initial target to $20,000 NZD and also place a cap on this new target. We intend to raise $20,000 or very near to this amount, and we will close off donations once we have reached this target.
This will of course double the original number of ads on buses in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch! This works out to approximately 12 buses in Auckland, 8 in Wellington and 4 in Christchurch. The ads will stay on the buses for 4 weeks.
We decided this was the best way of dealing with an excess of donations, as opposed to using them for some other purpose. You all have donated to put atheist ads on buses, and that is what we will use the money for. As before, literally all donation money will be used for advertising – there are no administrative overheads. The Humanist Society of NZ has kindly offered to administrate and oversee the donation collection to ensure it conforms to financial standards.
I see at this point we are well over quarter of the way to the new target, and rapidly growing! Thank you again to all the donations. They will make a significant impact in promoting atheism, humanism and rational enquiry in NZ.
24 comments 11.12.09
First off, thank you everyone for your generous donations and the emails of support. We appreciate them very much – you guys rock.
Here’s a list of some of the recent media reports about the campaign:
I’ll be talking on RadioLive at sometime just after 12:30pm today. Also, I’ll be on TVNZ Close Up tonight talking about the campaign.
Thanks again for all the support!
11 comments 11.12.09
I’d like to thank everyone today for their donations. It’s been a steady stream of donations rolling in all day. Thanks heaps guys!
We’re over 5% of the way there, which is not bad at all for the first day. There are a number of media opportunities coming up over the next week or so that should spread the campaign to a wider audience. I’ll be sure to outline them here or on Twitter as and when they occur.
Our target is $10,000 for the initial ad run. That works out at approximately $900 per ad-on-a-bus, so we’ve nearly got one ad sorted…let’s go!
173 comments 10.12.09
Today we launch the New Zealand Atheist Bus Campaign!
Following the positive spirit of the UK Campaign, this NZ version stands for the same basic principles and ideas: the promotion and expression of a secular humanist world view, and the affirmation that there is no need to believe in a supernatural being to live a full and rich life.
The campaign intends to promote debate on issues such as God, religion and religion’s influence on society. Religion should not be a taboo subject that no one brings up at dinner parties – we should be discussing what we believe and why. While New Zealand has a different religious environment than say, the United States, there are still issues to discuss and be aware of. For example, we have recently seen the rise of the radical Destiny Church, the deadly side of exorcisms, and there is the on-going debate of the validity of the tax-free status of modern churches. Further issues on the world stage also require discussion, such as news of the atrocities committed to children by Catholic priests in Ireland, and influence of fundamentalist Christianity and Islam across the world.
This campaign is about challenging people to think critically about their beliefs, and especially to think critically about how much control they give over their lives to a supernatural being for which there is no evidence.
To promote this message we intend to, initially at least, use the effective advertising medium of buses in New Zealand’s largest centres: Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The message on the buses will follow the example of the UK Campaign, with “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
We need your support to reach our fundraising goal of $10,000. All donations will go to advertising costs – no administrative overheads will be taken from donated money. The donations are kindly being administered by The Humanist Society of NZ. Please donate online through the donations link on the top-right of this page, or see the Support page for further donation options.
33 comments 10.12.09
After you donate you are able to enter a Comment. In this comment write the city in which you'd like to see billboards.
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