Bus Ads!

The Society of Edmonton Atheists have some big plans this year and we kicked off our fundraising event last night at the David Silverman event.

Our original goal was to have an ad that said ”Don’t Believe In God? You Are Not Alone” but after some discussions with David there are some valid reasons that isn’t the best message for the price tag involved. We need to have something that is new, something that stands out a bit and will get us some additional media attention.   On top of that it was pointed out that message has been used by relgious people :  ”Don’t believe in God?  You’re not alone…I had doubts once too”

All this being said, there are a few points we need to understand about advertising here in Alberta.  The Pattison group own the rights to the bus ads in Edmonton, and Jim Pattison is a Christian.  They originally classed us in the advocacy category, and then after some questions they changed their mind (but did not tell us why).  If we go with a stronger message we may get pushed back to advocacy, a price tag we can’t afford.   So, we’re awaiting clarification of our quote to see if a wording change will make a difference.

David and I, brainstorming, came up with this bus ad idea  (bear in mind this is an early mock up, fine tuning certainly has not happened, and it’s just an idea):

So, we are now awaiting some information from Pattison.  Will the new wording put us back into advocacy and can they explain exactly why?  If so, would changing the word IS to AND be acceptable?  Do the members agree to this ad?  There are all sorts of things that need to be discussed before we can move forward on the actual art work and message….and before any of those details are hashed out we have to raise the money.

We are working with a goal of $8,000 which was our original quote for the first bus ad wording.  If you are interested in helping we’ll be accepting donations at all events (just find a board member) or you can use our donation button  and let us know in the notes section you are donating towards the bus ads specifically.

We appreciate every amount!  Thanks for helping to support SEA and get the message out to other atheists that we’re here and that they aren’t alone!