By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — An atheist ad that a group won a court order to place has appeared on Central Arkansas Transit Authority buses with no immediate signs of the negative reaction transit officials feared.
The ad, which says, “Are you good without God? Millions are,” and gives the Internet address of the Central Arkansas Coalition of Reason, was placed on the sides of 18 CATA buses on Sunday, said Betty Wineland, executive director of the authority. The ad campaign is scheduled to run for four weeks.
A passenger boards a Central Arkansas Transit Authority bus bearing an ad placed by the Central Arkansas Coalition of Reason. The coalition recently won a court order requiring the transit authority to accept the ad on 18 buses. (John Lyon photo)
The coalition sued the transit authority and a marketing firm the transit authority uses, On the Move Advertising, in June after negotiations to place the ads broke down. The coalition said it was unfairly being asked to post a $36,000 security deposit, a requirement not placed on other advertisers, and alleged that it was being discriminated against because of the ad’s content.
At a hearing in federal court in August, Wineland and On the Move co-owner Lydia Robertson testified that they were concerned about a possible negative reaction to the ad, noting that similar signs in some other cities had been vandalized.
A federal judge ruled that the transit authority had to accept the signs but could require a $15,000 bond.
By this afternoon, no problems related to the signs had been reported, Wineland said.
“I don’t really expect that there would be a problem in our communities,” she said.
Then why did the transit authority go to court to stop the ad?
“Our contractor was concerned because of this record of vandalism,” Wineland said. “We felt that the contractor had a right to try to negotiate a deposit. And obviously the court agreed, because they did stipulate — even though it was a lesser amount — a $15,000 deposit in the event of vandalism.”
The coalition originally wanted to run the campaign in May during Riverfest, the city’s Memorial Day weekend festival. The group said today it decided to time the event to coincide with the Arkansas State Fair, which runs Oct. 14-23 in Little Rock.
The campaign in Central Arkansas is part of a national awareness campaign by the United Coalition of Reason, a coalition of atheist, agnostic and other nontheist groups across the country. Similar bus ads and billboards have appeared in 25 states and Washington, D.C., since the spring of 2009.
“We want folks to understand that atheists and agnostics are a legitimate part of the community,” said LeeWood Thomas, spokesman for the Central Arkansas Coalition of Reason. “People like us live all over Arkansas. We’re your friends and family, neighbors and co-workers, and maybe even the person sitting next to you in church.”
