Atheist Billboard in… Tampa Bay!

January 28, 2010 By 8 Comments

Thanks to the United Coalition of Reason, Tampa Bay now has an atheist billboard!

Reaching out to the like minded isn’t the only goal of the effort. “We also want to let people know that we nontheistic folks belong to the larger community,” added Rick O’Keefe, coordinator of Tampa Bay CoR. “Whether the public knows it or not, we can be found among family members, friends, neighbors and coworkers. We’re just like everyone else, except we don’t believe in a supreme being. It’s about time we were as free as others to be open about our views.”

It’s not the first atheist billboard in Florida. Another was up just a few months ago in Lakeland.

The more, the merrier, I say.

As far as I can tell, though, this billboard hasn’t stirred up too much controversy.

Perhaps it’s just not very confrontational. Similar billboards have gotten their fair share of publicity, though.

Or maybe people just aren’t getting worked up over the mere existence of atheists in the Tampa Bay area. In that case, the whole point of the billboards/ads is hitting home — this is we all wanted to have happen in the first place.

For once, maybe no publicity is a good thing.

Filed Under: Atheist Advertising, General 8 Comments
  • muggle

    Woo hoo! Keep those billboards coming.

    Actually, it’s a good thing if no one blinks an eye at them.

    Um, Hemant, why is everything centered?

  • http://friendlyatheist.com Hemant Mehta

    Because I forgot to close the tag :) Fixed now!

  • Karen

    This billboard campaign has been running for – what? – at least a year now? Maybe longer.

    I wonder if anyone is measuring its impact. Are the local organizations listed on the billboards getting more calls for information and increased membership?

    Is the FFRF (they’re sponsoring, right?) seeing more contributions?

    I’d love to know what good things are happening for atheists and atheist organizations out of all this publicity (good and bad).

  • Alice

    *pride* That’s my general vicinity!

  • Cheryl

    Just across the bridge from me, here in St. Pete we’ve had quite a few christian billboards, at least I haven’t seen any “abstinence feels good” billboards for some time.

  • http://explainthat.blog.com Whitney

    My dad lives in Lakeland, and he says the billboard there is still up. According to him it’s not in a very high traffic area though.

  • Flah

    Dude, it’s Gasparilla weekend. People will be happy if there’s no televised cannibalism or large caliber gunfights. Atheism will be viewed kindly when there’s full scale beads-for-tits paganism on display. Next week? Maybe a different story.

    @Cheryl: I’ve noticed those weirdly-worded abstinence billboards missing, too. Think they backfired? Take a look at redletterrebels.com and see if the phrase “I don’t think it means what you think it means” goes through your head.

  • http://sundialsaga.blogspot.com Modern Girl

    That is my favourite atheist/free thinking billboard. I really like straightforward and clear messsage behind it. And I like how it starts off with the argument that others CAN be good without God.

    Bravo to the designer. I really wasn’t into a lot of the other designs, but this one really is a winner.