Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Get on the bus, Gus

The American Humanist Association has put ads on buses in Washington, DC which take the now familiar Christmas culture wars (from "Jesus, the reason for the season" to attempted boycotts of department stores advertising "holiday" rather than "Christmas sales") to a whole new level:While it wittily refers to the non-religious carol "Santa Claus is coming to town," it's not quite as snappy as the work of the Atheist Bus Campaign in Britain on which it's based (and which communicates a different set of values: not the moral high ground, but a grounded humanist hedonism): And it's produced pretty unsnappy responses - though they do get the font and snowflakes right. Actually, the ad war between atheists and Christians is full of cases where the rhetoric or look of one is coopted by the other; best is the billboard campaign which has, in white letters against a bright sky, the words: "Don't believe in God? You are not alone."