OC Transpo's Advertising Policies
Feb. 16th, 2009 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randomA lot of my friends and especially blogs I read have been buzzing about OC Transpo's decision to reject Atheist evangelist advertising on the grounds of offensiveness, and whether it's censorship or not.
So far, I've been resisting the temptation to get into that discussion - frankly, I find the ads kind of puerile and obnoxious, and I do think that the city has a responsibility not to run overly offensive ads. So while I certainly wouldn't consider the atheist bus ads as crossing that line, I haven't been able to get too worked up about it.
But then the ever insightful Miss Vicki pointed out something I should have thought of sooner - that this is being rejected by the same advertising control board that thought that those Virgin "Gods of Rock" advertisements were appropriate. (Photos of both sets of ads are at that link.)
At which point - it's not just me that leaves boggling, right? "Stop worrying and enjoy your life" is inappropriate, while threats of sexual violence are right on?
*head, meet wall*
So far, I've been resisting the temptation to get into that discussion - frankly, I find the ads kind of puerile and obnoxious, and I do think that the city has a responsibility not to run overly offensive ads. So while I certainly wouldn't consider the atheist bus ads as crossing that line, I haven't been able to get too worked up about it.
But then the ever insightful Miss Vicki pointed out something I should have thought of sooner - that this is being rejected by the same advertising control board that thought that those Virgin "Gods of Rock" advertisements were appropriate. (Photos of both sets of ads are at that link.)
At which point - it's not just me that leaves boggling, right? "Stop worrying and enjoy your life" is inappropriate, while threats of sexual violence are right on?
*head, meet wall*
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-16 04:20 pm (UTC)Still. That's true of a lot of things in this world.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-16 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-16 07:14 pm (UTC)Does OC Transpo control what goes in the bus shelters?
Now mind you, I think banning the atheist ad is ludicrous in it's own right, but it's a ludicrous that would inspire me more to lodge formal complaints if I ever saw any other type of religious advertising on OC Transpo just to make a point.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-16 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-16 11:44 pm (UTC)There have been complaints laid in the appropriate directions...we'll see whether anything can come of it.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 01:33 pm (UTC)"Why be good for God's sake? Just be good for goodness' sake."
Versus:
"Christianity: The biggest employer of pedophiles in North America!"
The ads that the OC Transpo people deemed 'offensive' were only seen that way by people who though they were discriminating against religion. Unfortunately, the censorship of the atheist ads is discrimination against NOT believing in a religion. I don't understand the logic behind tolerating intolerance, but I really don't understand the logic behind allowing one type of intolerance and not another.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 05:10 pm (UTC)I think the reason Virgin wins and atheism doesn't is because Virgin represents capital, whereas atheism does not. You could also argue that Christian church ads don't really represent capital either, but I think they do in a way. There's a lot of cheesy as well as downright creepy Christian merchandise you can find all over the place. Where is the atheist merchandise? Where is the atheist church? You don't even really need to capitalise the word "atheist"!