This Post is Not About The Atheist Bus Campaign*

*well, not quite.

Whilst I let out a silent cheer on behalf of my fellow free-speech-enthusiasts every time I boarded an “Atheist” 73; I have to confess that I eagerly awaited the reactions from the God-fearing folk amongst us. Disappointed I was not…

Clearly, the BHA were onto a winner with their justgiving fundraiser page, hence it was only a matter of time before a company like Alpha International threw their hat into the ring.
Rather flatteringly, Alpha opted to go for the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach & set up their own justgiving page. Unfortunately for Alpha International, justgiving have a handy little shout box mechanism which allows donors to add some form of encouragement to their sponsor - or not, as Alpha International were soon to discover. With a minimum donation fee set at £2; anti-Alpha-ites flocked to mock the pre-empted failure of a counter campaign via the handy little "taunt" box.
At present, overall Alpha donations stand at £2,004, compared to overall Atheist donations at £151,661.
More than ¾ (£1,510) of Alpha donations have been made by 6 key (mostly anonymous) individuals.
15% of donations were in the form of “paid taunts”.
I haven't seen an Alpha bus poster yet; maybe they're waiting until they hit their target of £100,000.
- At the current rate of donations, Alpha will hit their target in c.1,000 year's time.**

I was dozing on the 73 last week when out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of an old friend... I'd become so accustomed to the trusty Atheist bus ads that I'd developed "consumer blinkers": I'd seen the ad; taken in the message & thus had no intention of reliving the experience.
But hang on a second...

"THERE DEFINITELY IS A"-WHAT?!
On further inspection I realised that the ad was actually an exact clone of the Atheist ads, albeit with entirely different copy. I practically went through the seven stages of grief whilst contemplating what exactly had compelled someone to commit such a heinous crime against the advertising world.

I mean come on; surely any marketing pro worth their salt ought to realise that repeated stimuli lowers one's intensity of consciousness = NOT PAYING ATTENTION, therefore rendering the entire campaign - for want of a better word - shit.

Oh, and God only knows what the ASA are going to have to say about this one, copyright implications aside.
BUT WAIT A MINUTE!
- Our nation of complainaholics:
(a) probably won't notice the ad.
(b) are probably too busy complaining about something more topical.

Maybe those Christian marketeer fellows knew what they were doing after all...

**Credit: Malcom Dodd