Recently, I came across an article in one of the local papers here in Spain stating that Barcelona has the infamous Atheist Bus. Truthfully, I had not heard of the Atheist bus (now a popular, well known advertisement in London) until the media broke the story here in Valencia. The bus appeared in the first week of January. This may seem insignificant for most Americans or other largely protestant cultures, but the first week in January is when most die-hard Catholics celebrate (or at least in Spain) the coming of the kings to Bethlehem. And here we had a public bus owned by the Catholic state of Spain, though its powerful province Barcelona, sporting a huge colorful ad stating "There's probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." Now that is precious.
So, let me get down to the nitty-gritty of the message that I want to transmit here...After you read this, or perhaps you might have already opened another tab to google 'atheist bus', you will find a whirlwind of blogs, press reports, christian blogs, websites...you know it...so on and so forth...ETC! This has set a wildfire on the internet and it will still burn and burn until there is none left to burn because that is how these types of things go. It will also burn and burn because atheist groups, here in Spain and in other countries that have caught the wildfire, are spreading this popular message. I, too, google-d "bus ateo valencia" and guess what? Yes! Valencia will soon enough have the infamous Atheist Bus during the famous festivities of Fallas. How ironic. Will it come to your city? I hope so. And this is why...
I'm a believer. I am not a believer in God or any other invisible ultimate being waiting for us in the sky, I'm a believer in the human spirit. And I love this ad for its humanitary message. Afterall, this Atheist bus movement began as a humanitarian movement. Check out the website. A fellow blogger started this movement Ariane Sherine. You'll find her all over the internet in videos, blogs, websites....you know it...ETC! This leads me to another point I want to get at here. ONE HELL OF AN IDEA ARIANE! You know, most marketers and writers work thier whole lives and never have one slogan, one piece of communication get as much exposure as our lovely Ms. Sherine's idea. Eventhough she is a prominent writer in London and has her fair share of fame, she (all of the sudden) is getting publicity as if she was an international rock star. You know what is even better, she got it all for free.
We marketers can learn from our "queen" Sherine.
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This particular blog entry sparked a lot of interest in me and I thought I'd chip in the subject matter here: the atheist bus and the power of influence that internet [marketing] may have in our global society.
ReplyDeleteTo me, Atheists, lawyers and most activists are very much alike. This is why: we as human beings are known for projecting on other places what we most (subconsciously) dislike about our own selves.
We tend to be against certain causes that do not sit right with our own personal conviction of the world, and although the majority of the deeply engaged activists have a solid justification for their actions and their way of thinking, they seem to ignore, or fail to recognize why they are against a particular issue in the first place.
Like the majority of us, the reason why we feel strongly about the wrongfulness of a particular cause would be equal to the justification we developed in the first place to become engaged in the movement. But is it really that way? How sure are we that we are not protesting against the very things we most dislike and that are found within our own selves?
In response to this you may say: if I an Atheist and I am against the imposition of religious beliefs and the idea of a supernatural being to control, or at least mold the behavior of the masses, how can I have any of that in me? If I am protesting against the war because any given government discriminates against the will of its own people and deceives its own nationals into going to war against another country without ever revealing the true motives of the military mobilization to those really affected by the war (soldiers and their friends and families, then how could I have any of that in me? How can I be deceitful and manipulative if that is the very thing I am against?
The answer to both of those questions can be found in the following example: Why do we prefer to live outside of our parents' sphere of influence rather than living inside it? Could it be that we see too much of ourselves in them, even those things that we don't like about them? Is this why we feel the need to move out and to find who we are? For those who do find who they really are in the end, don't you end up realizing how much alike you are to your parents? Isn't accepting who you are part of the entire introspective process of soul searching that life is, even with as many flaws as you may have?
So, the question becomes, who are we really moving away from? Against what, or whom are we really protesting? If in order to change the world we have to start with ourselves, aren't we all taking the easy way out by projecting our disagreements and frustrations with our own selves on other issues rather than looking at the monster in the eye? After all, most of us cruise through life clueless of what's inside, how it got there, and what its ramifications could be.
Anonymous.