Last month, the following billboard went up in Mobile, Alabama (along with other billboards in two other cities) to mark the launch of the Gulf Coast Coalition of Reason:

While the contract said the billboard would be up for a month beginning around Christmas, the placement of that ad was actually delayed by two weeks.

Delays happen. So the simple solution would be to keep the billboard up for an extra two weeks to make up for the lost time, right?

That’s not what Lamar Advertising did. They took down the billboard on the date originally specified in the contract, even though it hadn’t been up for a full four weeks.

It seemed that part of the problem was that Lamar was receiving a lot of complaints about the billboard. When the United Coalition of Reason questioned their motivation, one spokesperson remarked:

“They just want to start a fight,” [Troy Tatum, vice-president of Lamar Advertising in Mobile] said.

Well, that dispute has finally been resolved. Sort of.

The billboard will go back up for an additional week (not two):

“This reaffirms the formal launch of the Gulf Coast Coalition of Reason which initially took place on Tuesday, January 6,” CoR’s Jason Heap told AL.com. The billboard in Mobile is on the west side of Interstate 65, south of US Hwy. 45, facing north.

But here are the upsides to getting the additional time (which is actually ten days and not seven as the article suggests):

1) The image is on an electronic billboard — which is more expensive than the traditional kind.

2) It’s in a more prominent location than before, meaning it’ll reach a bigger and newer audience as a result.

3) It’s already getting publicity as a result of the controversy.

So the atheists will arguably get even more than they originally paid for, all thanks to a handful of whiny Christians. Thanks, Jesus!

(Large portions of this article were published earlier)



