Honesty in Advertising?

Fail math.

% = number in group / total
total = number in group / %
total = 50,000 / 0.00125 = 40 million new yorkers?

WTF

mihoda, that’s assuming all 50,000 were New Yorkers.

Hmm. Research conducted. Nope, about 56% of New Yorkers are religious, as far as I can see. Fail math indeed.

@mihoda:

Well, if you go New York Metro area (~20 million), it’s actually about %0.25, and by New York City area (~10 million) it’s about %0.5.

While I agree with not “advocating vandalism” – it is pretty much a time-honored tradition that all NYC subway posters and ads are immediately modified or defaced. I have come to think of it almost like comments on a blog. In fact, I would consider any ad in the subway a failure if it attracted no “modifications” at all – which would only mean it was so uninteresting that no one even noticed it.

More truth in advertising. I went to their web page. When I scrolled down I saw that they have a slide show. It was telling me that I’d seen all the photos (I hadn’t because they all had been shown before I scrolled down), would I like to see them again? So I clicked ‘Yes’. There is only one picture in the slide show!

I would like to hereby advocate vandalism if you can make it this awesome.

(Of course, people should be careful about over-estimating the awesomeness of their vandalism.)

This is a great post! Certainly the number is off, but the point comes across well. The fail is the campaign’s promoters. The number is a very small percentage of the overall population of New York City.

Uh, its funny how atheists scream if one of their billboards is vandalized, but make excuses if a Christian one is.

And Hermann, why do you keep calling yourself “The Friendly Atheist”?

You have already admitted the name doesn’t fit.

So, quit lying, sport.

O.K.?

I think the proper course of action is for someone to correct the math figure using the black sharpie so as to make it look like there was no mistake. I think vandalism has a time and place and that time and place is re-framing Christian billboards accurately. The only thing wrong is a math confusion.

I think it’s a subtle social critique suggesting that the time these 50,000 people would spend praying should be spent lobbying for more math and science instruction in public schools.

Thanks, Kev, for once more proving it isn’t the atheists that have issues with the truth. Goldstein would do himself a greater favor if he actually knew what he was talking about instead of the usual knee-jerk reactionary statements I’ve gotten to know from our myth-driven brethren.

Someone should write under it
“You idiot, it’s 0.6%.
Learn2Math”

Mr. Mehta, not crunching the numbers? So this gives me a free pass out of doing my math homework this weekend, right?

Atheism cures fanatic tererisim.
FAITH and Truth are not compatible. FAITH is belief in something for which there is no proof.
It seems to me that faith is the driving force in all religions. Most of us are exposed to the faith of those we know, nearly every day. We are as diverse in the number of religious faiths as anywhere else in the world. The founding fathers put a great deal of thought and discussion into the writing of our constitution. Their education and exposure to religion was such that they almost all agreed that there was a supernatural God that created the universe and the human race. Many of them probably didn’t really see Native Americans and Negro’s as humans. Manifest Destiny was considered by many of our leaders as Gods blessing when they stole land from the Native Americans and the Mexicans. The history and fighting among the religious faiths of the time could not have been known with the degree of understanding that is available today. Most probably had not read of the killing between Catholics and the various Protestant faiths. They couldn’t have known the extent to which the Crusades affected the Christian and Muslim faiths. They, and most of the western world knew very little about Muslims.

This country has grown as a Christian nation. The bible has, and still is, used in about every public ceremony we conduct. Nearly all governmental swearing-ins uses a bible as the testament of truth. We see the bible in the funeral services conducted by nearly all the fraternal organizations. I believe it will be a long time before things change, but I do believe they will change.
Science has provided us with provable examples of creation of the universe and all living things. The Big Bang and evolution should be part of every ones education. When mankind finally accepts the fact that there is no supernatural, loving God out there who has control of everything, we will have to take another look at the religious texts.
In this 21st century we will need to rely on logic and reason and be more willing to question FAITH.
Faith is so powerful that it makes men willing to die. The faithful have been killing one another for over two thousand years. The faithful on both sides in our Civil War thought God was on their side. Not very logical. The faithful Japanese committed Hari-Kari,and provided the kamakazi pilots of WWII, through faith. Not very logical. The Muslims are blowing themselves up through faith. Not logical. Opposing sports teams pray for a win and for the safety of their players. I’m sure it makes them feel good, but both can’t win and injuries do happen. Not logical.
The religions of the Mayans and Aztecs, and every one living in what we now call the Western Hemisphere, were not aware of the supernatural God of Christians. Not logical for a supernatural God.
I think we have a chance to see a much more peaceful world and a much more prosperous world when the prejudices of the faithful is gone. I hope to see the day when all nations are truly respectful of one another and cooperate in each others interests.