These adverts were intended for 4-sheet placement at train stations in March 2011 but were rejected by the rail companies working in franchise partnership with our media agency. The reason given for this was that the advertising was of a ‘religious nature’ and risked offending, in their opinion, either with our original ‘for God’s sake’ slogan or with alternative slogans we offered.
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| Click thumbnail for larger image (or get very high res) |
Click thumbnail for larger image (or get very high res) |
Click thumbnail for larger image (or get very high res) |
The Committee of Advertising Practice advised against running ads with the ‘for God’s sake’ slogan but our media agency agreed to run an alternate slogan on buses only. Our redeveloped slogan appeared on buses in towns and cities across the UK and looked like this:
(Get the high res press image of the mockup)
The original slogan did however appear on billboards in London.
The incident provides a strong example of the need for reform of the codes around advertising and religious offence.