With lent officially kicking of 40 days of good behaviour, what if anything will you be giving up? With sugary sweets off the agenda for those wanting to take the spiritual high ground, it may be time for healthy promotional items to shine.

Did you know that Lent is an old English word meaning ‘lengthen’. Lent is considered to be the start of spring - when the days begin to get longer.

Interestingly the church has quite rightly been encouraging the British public to cut their carbon footprints during the next 40-days of fasting and prayer. Both the Bishop of London and Liverpool have been promoting a carbon free Lent, by suggesting we all remove a light bulb from our homes. The brains behind the carbon fasting scheme was Rev James Jones(Bishop of Liverpool) who said: “There is a moral imperative for those of us who emit more than our fair share of carbon to rein in our consumption.”

With this in mind, eco friendly promotional items seem to be the order of the day. Ecoproducts2order has a complete range of environmentally friendly promotional items - that are sure to get the church’s blessing.

 A few weeks ago I brought you news of an unprecedented marketing campaign by the Atheist Society, who were (and are) promoting their controversial but optimistic message of Atheist propaganda. Well it seems the saga continues, as the three heavy weight Christian groups are set to retaliate with a promotional campaign of their own.

It is the Christian Party, the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Russian Orthodox Church who have organised the campaign which is set to be spread onto fifty of London’s bendy buses. The first message that Londoners will be exposed to is: “There definitely is a God. So join The Christian Party and enjoy your life”, I personally would have appreciated more of a hard sell, something like: “Repent…Or Burn in Hell for Eternity”.As much as I admire the enthusiasm of these Christian groups, I can’t help feeling that there absolutist claims of a God ‘definitely’ existing to be a bit on the dodgy side.

“THERES PROBABLY NO GOD. NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE”

Do you find this offensive? Or does it fill you with optimism? The more eagle eyed of you will have seen them on the side of buses or on the tube, in the latest marketing campaign by the British Humanist Association. The ad which is meant to make people feel good about themselves, is bound to cause offence to some people. The view held by prominent Atheists such as Richard Dawkins who personally donated to the scheme, is that we have Bishops seated in the House of Lords so atheists should at least be aloud to market there beliefs.

In the news today was reports of a bus driver in Southampton who refused to drive the bus and just went home! Ron Heather, 62, an evangelical Christian from Southampton, refused to drive a bus bearing an advert from a national campaign aimed at persuading more people to “come out” as atheists. Although he later bravely said, “I’m not going to let passengers down because of my feelings.”

How do you feel about the scheme? Is it right for Atheists to market themselves, and advertise their godless morality? Do you respect their liberty, but disagree with their message?

The ASA are looking into the matter, as they have received nearly 150 complaints (although that doesn’t strike me as being that many). Interestingly Stephen Green the mouthpiece for ‘Christian Voice’, argues that the advert breaks the advertising code on the grounds of a lack of truthfulness.

The case continues…