We will collect tax-refundable donations centrally through this website and the Givealittle service, just like before. The goal is to raise enough money to put as many billboards as possible in cities outside of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

The beauty of billboards is that for a relatively small amount of money it is possible to re-locate an existing canvas to a new site in a different city. This will be the first way we’ll use the donated money – to move existing billboards to different cities. Depending on how much we fundraise, the second way we’ll use the donated money will be to commission the printing of additional billboards so we can cover a wider range of sites and cities.

To let us know what cities are most important to you guys, please tell us through the Givealittle site. After you donate you are able to enter a Comment. In this comment write the city in which you’d like to see billboards. We will tally up each time a city is mentioned and work out a plan to bring billboards to the most requested cities. Our decision will also need to be based on the availability of sites and the costs involved, so we’ll need to reserve the right to choose the cities/towns to go to first.

I look forward to seeing which cities out there require the boards the most! Thanks for all the support guys – it’s very much appreciated.

NZ Atheists Swap Buses For Billboards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The NZ Atheist Bus Campaign will unveil billboards with friendly atheist slogans in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch this week.

The campaign has chosen the three winning phrases from more than 900 public submissions of billboard slogans. “We’re excited about this opportunity to promote these thoughtful slogans and hope they’ll get people to stop and think.” said Simon Fisher, spokesperson for the Campaign.

While the precise wording of the three new slogans is intended to be a surprise, Mr Fisher says that all three designs will include the text “There’s probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life” borrowed from the successful UK bus campaign.

With the launch of the billboard campaign, the organisation is also reopening its call for donations from people who want to see the billboards moved to other cities. “While the bus campaign would have been limited to main centres, the great thing about these canvases is that once printed they can be toured to other centres” said Mr Fisher.  “If a community wants to put one of our billboards up in their area they can contact us, arrange a location, and we’ll be delighted to lend them the canvas”.

Despite similar campaigns being run internationally, the organisation’s plans to place ads on buses in New Zealand hit a brick wall earlier this year when NZ Bus accepted and then rejected the billboards, leading to the Campaign’s decision to take the issue to a tribunal. “The Campaign is still committed to the discrimination case against NZ Bus through the Office of Human Rights Proceedings. “We have kept funds in reserve for a bus advertising campaign if this is successful.” said Mr Fisher.

Interested Kiwis can see the billboards in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch from Friday this week.

For more information and to donate, see http://www.nogod.org.nz/

ENDS

Feel free to share the links around the net. Also, please be polite and clever – it’s the best way to get the message across. Being offensive is not persuasive and we may delete duplicate or offensive billboards.

Some great suggestions for billboards rolling in already – keep them up, and also tell us what ones you like the most!

In the meantime, we all want to see atheist messages out there in public. To achieve this, we are spending approximately half the donated money – around $10,000 – on a billboard campaign, starting now. This amount will allow for billboards in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. There will also be funds allocated to relocation of these billboards, so that after being up in the main centres they can later be moved to smaller cities relatively cheaply. We’re pleased how the use of billboards allows us to advertise in smaller centres in this way, as so many people asked about this.

The remainder of the money will be saved (with tasty interest accruing) for either a bus campaign once the discrimination proceedings are finalised with NZ Bus, or to fund additional billboards.

We are also pleased to be able to address one of the other most discussed aspects of our campaign – the actual slogan. For the billboards we’ve decided to use new slogans, while retaining the original “No God” slogan as a logo for the campaign. The branding already built up around the “No God” slogan gives us a great opportunity to explore some other catchy phrases that express atheism and get people to stop and think.

But wait, there’s more! We want you to come up with slogans and then vote on the best ones to be used on billboards. Leave comments below on the blog, on the Facebook post, tweet us, or simply email us your ideas for new slogans.

There will also be a billboard generator set up soon so you can see a mock up of how your creation will look as a billboard. We’ll let you know when this is ready.

Here are some potential candidates to get y’all started…

• Over one-third of New Zealanders are good without God. You can be too. [or: Are you good without God? Over a million kiwis are.]
• We need God like a fish needs a bicycle.
• If there was a God, then one of his key mistakes was making me an Atheist. [paraphrased Gervais quote]
• Think Rationally. Accept Evidence. Reject Faith.
• Question everything, including pixies, leprechauns and God.
• We are all Atheists about most religions. Some of us just go one god further. Atheism
• Are you also Agnostic about the existence of Unicorns or Zeus? Get off the fence. Atheism
• When you understand why you dismiss other gods you will understand why I dismiss yours. Atheism
• To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. – Isaac Asimov
• It will yet be the proud boast of women that they never contributed a line to the Bible. – George W. Foote
• Question with boldness even the existence of a god – Thomas Jefferson
• Don’t believe in God? You’re not alone.
• You can be good without God.
• Why believe in God? Just be good for goodness’ sake.
• In the beginning, Man created God.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with…go!

The Humanist Society have been great helping us collect donations and acting as trustees for the donations while the advertising issues are sorted out. If you’re keen to become more involved with other friendly atheists, then check them out and perhaps even join up! The Humanist Society is based in Wellington – http://www.humanist.org.nz/. If you’re based in Auckland then try the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists at http://www.nzarh.org.nz/.

Tim

We have also had a handful of companies that use other advertising media say that they’ll be happy to host our ads. These have ranged from billboards to full page advertisements in major New Zealand papers. It’s good to see that many other media companies do not think our message is controversial and divisive.

We’ve also had suggestions including t-shirts, bumper stickers, and even big magnetic signs to go on the side of cars and vans!

While we’re seriously investigating legal avenues for bus ads, we’d love your creative feedback on where you, the atheists of New Zealand, would love to see the messages. We’d even love to hear what message you think would best start discussions about the legitimacy of non-belief.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all of you out there for your words of support, and also for putting the pressure on NZ Bus to explain their rejection of the ads. If NZ Bus makes possibly discriminatory decisions like this, they need to know how many people out there disagree with their decision. The choice to use their services and the messages we send them are the best sources of consumer power in our modern economy.

First off we have the Stuff/Dominion Post coverage of the story, complete with poll. The poll results are rather interesting, with 93.4% of respondents (when last checked) saying that this decision by NZ Bus to reject the ads is “unfair and discriminatory” (standard Internet poll qualifications apply of course).

Next we have the Stuff/NZPA article, which also includes a link to the TVNZ Breakfast video. There’s also the TV3 Sunrise article and video which follows a similar line.

In the blog world, No Right Turn thinks the decision is “blatantly unlawful” and calls for concerned people to communicate their thoughts to NZ Bus. There’s also a great post from a fellow called Frank, an “unashamed Christian” who while obviously not supporting the exact message of the Campaign, supports our right to get it out there. And last but not least, Brian Edwards summarises the recent events and astutely notes “the sure and certain fact that nothing can draw more attention to a commercial than banning it.”

Example ad image from the UK Campaign (thanks Jon Worth)

The NZ Atheist Bus Campaign, which late last year raised in excess of $20,000 from public donations, has met a set back in their plans. Nationwide bus company NZ Bus, who had tentatively approved the campaign’s ads on buses in major city centres, have now rejected them.

NZ Bus stated that they have received a number of complaints from the public about the proposed ads, which read “There’s probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

Spokesperson for the Atheist Bus Campaign Simon Fisher says “It’s concerning that peaceful atheist messages are not allowed on buses while religious messages are often seen on buses and in public. Messages of atheism are rare in New Zealand and we aim to raise awareness for the one-third of New Zealanders who are unconvinced by the claims of religion.”

Organisers of the Campaign tried to reach a resolution with NZ Bus, and later attempted mediation sessions through the Human Rights Commission. NZ Bus refused to participate in these mediation sessions. Because they are refusing to discuss the matter and reach an agreement, the organisers of the Campaign are now investigating the possibility of taking this case to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.

Simon Fisher says “we’re disappointed at the response from NZ Bus and plan to look at options going forward. We owe it to the thousands of Kiwis who have supported this campaign with donations and messages of support.”

Advertisements with identical wording ran in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Spain. Similar campaigns also ran successfully in Croatia, Finland, Holland, Italy, America and across the Tasman in Australia.

“We are gravely concerned that in New Zealand we’re unable to present an atheistic message, showing that we do not have the same practical freedom of expression as in other first world countries. It highlights why this campaign is so necessary.” said spokesperson Simon Fisher.

The Campaign will continue to accept donations for advertising, see http://www.nogod.org.nz for further details.

We are currently in negotiations with the bus and ad companies, and the administrative side of things is taking longer than expected. We hope to be able to tell you more details in the near future and provide a solid time frame for the buses.

Thank you again for your ongoing support. The many positive messages we have received from New Zealanders have been a great confirmation of the worth of this project. We can’t wait to get the actual ads out there!

Stay tuned…