| BY Lynchy |

Last week’s Gruen Transfer pitch topic which challenged Melbourne based agency Loud&Clear Creative and Sydney’s Play Communications to sell the idea of ‘banning all religion in Australia’ has prompted the largest response from the public in The Gruen Transfer’s four year history with over 160,000 views (and growing) on YouTube.

The show’s typically controversial topics in the past have included legalising child labour and lowering the legal drinking age to 16, but have never received such a reaction. In fact the next closest number of YouTube views for a pitch was to ban swearing in Australia, which received around 30,000 hits.

What has been the more astonishing than the number of views however is the debate and the discussion that has been raised between Atheists and various religious groups. Literally thousands of passionate posts and responses have been posted on various forums and Youtube.

‘It’s amazing that what is supposed to be an innocuous ‘tongue in cheek’ pitch at selling the ‘un-sellable’ has sparked debate in the community about religion’ said Loud&Clear Director Cade Witnish, whose team was responsible for one of the pitches.