The atheist tram campaign (trampaign?) in Zagreb, Croatia was up… and down, all within one day.
The ad read “No Gods, No Masters.”
Reader Enola was kinda enough to translate this article and give it some context.
Here’s Enola’s translation:
ZAGREB – “Without God, without a master” is Croatian Women’s Network’s slogan which was supposed to be displayed for a month long on trams number 14. However, it lasted only for a day, after which ZET [Zagreb Electric Tram] decided to remove it because, as they said, it wasn’t in accordance with marketing policy of that city owned company.
Atheist slogan, following similar examples in Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and Canada is a part of a campaign of Coalition for secularism and was ordered by Women’s Network coordinator Bojana Genov for which she paid 11000 Croatian kunas [about $1900].
Considering that, by law, she is entitled to it, Genov arranged one month lease for three trams with marketing department of ZET for which she received a receipt.
Tram [with the slogan] rode on 4th of March, and already the next day it was withdrawn. Head of Marketing told me that people complained, and that’s why they acted this way. It’s not just a violation of the right to freedom of speech, it’s also a business fraud, and the worst of all is that the company is a public property. Where did they get the right to play God – Genov was resigned, supposing there’s no equality when it comes to freedom of speech because the attitudes of theists can be heard, but those of atheists can’t.
In ZET they say that no contract has been concluded so they had no obligation to follow up with agreement, and that the money that has been paid was returned to the association. The slogan has been withdrawn because, they say, it hasn’t been signed, so citizens could get the impression that it represents ZET’s attitude. “Besides that, the principles of advertising do not allow featuring messages that could be interpreted as an attack on moral, religious or political stands of our citizens”, says the statement of ZET’s spokesman Tomislav Juri?.
Nothing was controversial for city governments in bus slogans in Great Britain, where 800 buses rode with the message “There probably is no god, now stop worrying and enjoy your life” or in Italy with the message “The bad news is that God doesn’t exist. The good news is that you don’t need him.” However, the citizens protested there too, even refused to enter those buses, and some drivers refused to drive them.”
The original article is here. If anyone thinks the translation needs to be fixed, please leave the fixed version in the comments. I am a little confused why the date of removal is the day after March 4th… did this happen a long time ago or does Croatia have a different calendar?
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