The Centre for Inquiry, a Canadian national atheist group, is claiming discrimination after Pattison Outdoor rejected an ad they were trying to run in downtown Vancouver.
The Vancouver Sun points out that Pattison is running ads in Halifax this fall for the pro-life group Signs for Life.
It seems like a double standard – until you compare the actual ads by the two groups.
The Signs for Life ads make a simple, straightforward point expressing their belief on abortion and the dignity of unborn human life.
The atheist ads, on the other hand, make their point by mocking Christians.
Pat O’Brien, a board member for the Centre for Inquiry, claims they weren’t trying to be offensive.
“The idea of the ads is not to upset anyone,” he told the Sun. “When we designed the ads, we went out of our way to make them as soft as we could.”
Yeah, right.
According to census data for 2011, Christians made up 36.2 percent of Vancouver’s population.
Perhaps the moral is: When you try to run an ad mocking over a third of your target audience, don’t be surprised if the ad agency takes a pass.