Last October, the Freedom From Religion Foundation went live with an atheist ad campaign featuring relatively unknown, local freethinkers from Madison, Wisconson.

I thought it was a strong campaign with beautifully-designed billboards.

Now, they’re doing it again in Raleigh, North Carolina. This time, 12 billboards will go up on behalf of the Triangle Freethought Society. They went up today and they’ll be there through the end of April (PDF).

Here are the new designs:

“It worked for the gay rights movement. It’s time for atheists and agnostics to come out of our closet,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, who co-directs FFRF with Dan Barker. “Many faces make enlightenment work. We know many people in North Carolina have never knowingly met an atheist or unbeliever, much less someone who is proud to advertise their nonbelief. We are so proud of our North Carolina members and participants.” … “We are grateful to the Triangle Freethought Society and our members for coming ‘out of the closet’ and participating in this campaign, and particularly wish to single out Amy Glenn, who coordinated this amazing project so adroitly,” said Barker. … Eric Thomas, a community member who is pictured on one of five billboards in Raleigh, states that he wanted to be part of the campaign because, “By putting a human face on atheism, I hope to contribute to reversing the demonization of atheism that occurs so often… I want non-theists’ concerns to be adequately represented in society.”

Talk about putting your face with a godless word?

I love this. It humanizes a group of people often falsely stereotyped as amoral and wicked. And, best of all, these are not actors playing the part. They are citizens of North Carolina, living and working in the areas where these billboards will go up.

We need more campaigns like these.



