Kiwi skateboarding brand Eshe declares ‘Religion is garbage’
A New Zealand skateboarding brand has declared ‘Religion is garbage’ with a series of deliberately controversial posters hitting the streets of central Auckland.
The posters for Eshe Skateboarding, created in the style of the famous cartoon series Garbage Pail kids, subvert religious figures from Christianity, Hinduism and Scientology.
One image shows Hollywood actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise dressed as Ali G, with the slogan ‘Scientolo G’.
They are the second in the series of the brand’s anti-religion campaign that launched in 2010. The first featured an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a bomb strapped to his body and the slogan ‘Tick-tock Muhammad’.
I love bashing religion, so I love this
I notice they’re not mocking Islam here…
They are, James. We chose not to post the image.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Tim, why not?
if they’re mocking Islam I hope everybody in the building where their agency is located has been given due notice to clear out and head for the hills
Why?
Why would you not post the Islam one?
As for this idea, Blind skateboards did it better about 15 years ago.
Hi Jeff and Not The First James,
Is that a serious question? I’m happy to answer it if you honestly don’t know the answer.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Tic, tic, tic….
Love it. It’s a shame we’re so PC these days in Australia.
I wonder though if there is a copyright infringement; it’s a new take on the Garbage Gang collector cards from the 90s.
Great call Tim.
Also causing offense for the sake of it is all well and good, but you don’t have to look like shit doing it.
One could argue that Scientology is not a religion, it is a cult. Germany and France treats it as such, even L. Ron Hubbard said it wasn’t a religion.
Yes, it’s a honest question Tim, why would you post the others but not the Islam one?
I’m not a mind reader, seems to be selective prejudice. It’s ok to offend any religion except Islam.
Self censorship facepalm!
This self-censorship is pretty concerning. Every other religion or belief system can be open to criticism and ridicule, but not Islam. Is this a glimpse into the future of journalism?
I thought the same
It’s obviously topical but so what
Why should you make one rule for some religions and another for others ?
The reason for the censorship isn’t obvious. You are going to have to spell it out.
Good to see that with just a few riots Muslims have silenced any criticism of them. They should run courses for Christians, Jews, Buddhists and all the other religions who get criticised just to make sure there is no favouritism. I mean we can’t have the fourth estate ruled by fear can we?
All of the complaints about the self censorship regarding the muslim poster… Agreed but be aware that they also chose not to show the one with the Pope being referred to as a pedophile.
Personally I love all of these.
Jeff,
My guess is, Tim realises history has shown most religions have accepted that the likeness of their leader may get mocked, and while some members of the Muslim faith have as well, clearly others are still a wee bit touchy on the subject, and perhaps Tim chose protecting his business and staff over one more outbreak of bullshit.
Dave
Still waiting for your explanation Tim.
Still not sure why they’d do a campaign done by another skate brand 15 years ago
http://www.retroskatestickers......ds-guy.jpg
Still not sure why it’s ok to poke fun at some religions and not others
Sorry for the slow response, Elbogrease, Worst of Perth, Seriously, Jeff, James et al. It’s a question I wanted to have the time to answer properly.
Bluntly, if you publish images of The Prophet, offensive or otherwise, as night follows day, it is likely that you will be attacked.
As you may be aware, a belief within Islam is that it is offensive to show images of Mohammed regardless of context.
I spent some time working in the Middle East, enough to become aware that those who follow Islam are almost without exception, peaceful people whose belief in the Quran inspires them to lead positive, charitable lives.
However, likes any religion, there are a small number who do not. In 2006, I happened to be in Beirut for an advertising awards event at the time that anger was growing over a series of Danish cartoons. An ad agency I popped into the next day shared the same office building as the Danish embassy.
Fortunately I missed by a few hours the demonstrators torching that building, which you can read about here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4682560.stm
But it was a close enough call to focus the mind.
Is it self-censorship? Yes? Does it suck? Yes.
But I honestly believe that to publish that ad would put me, and more importantly, my staff in danger. And while some principles are worth fighting for, a crass, attention-seeking Kiwi skateboarding brand is not.
I suspect they may not know how much danger they are potentially in.
In my view, their cartoons have little merit. I weighed up not running the story at all, as I worried we were playing into their hands just by publishing this crap. And of course it’s unfair to publish something that’s offensive to one religion and not that which is offensive to another.
But I think I’ve chosen the least shit alternative.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Thanks for your reply Tim. Shouldn’t have run the story at all as you say.
Very good response and thanks for the honesty, personally I’d just have gone with none.
Cheers.
What you’re saying is that you are prepared to show some restraint, respect and politeness because you believe there may be a violent reaction if you don’t. But if you believe there is no risk of any physical retaliation, then you think it is fine to subject people and their faiths to mockery and ridicule. This reveals more about you than it does about Islam.
Hi Peter,
I don’t actually think it’s fine to subject anyone of faith to mockery and ridicule, particularly when it’s lazy and stupid, as this work appears to me. But I do struggle with the question of whether we should not cover it as a news story when others do so.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Well said Tim.
These cards are great. Now, if we could just amend section 116 of the constitution and curtail the $30 billion in tax write offs that religions enjoy.
The inclusion of Gandhi shows a lack of thought that went into this campaign. He was a Hindu, but hardly a representative figure of that particular religion.
Also, where is the Dalai Lama one?
This is where the media is at these days: Everyone else is crass, tasteless and offensive, so I have to be as well.
Peter Chanel, covering this as a news story simply shows how one brand has chosen to market themselves. Any ‘vilification’ comes from people’s response to that. Given that the content is on a marketing-related website, and not a religious one, it should be pretty clear to most readers what the context is.
@Jeff… your link to the original had me laughing out loud… unfortunately, these versions do seem a tad ‘done before’…
Thanks for posting Tim, it’s all news at the end of the day…
Stick with atheism or agnosticism. When was the last time you heard of ‘agnostic tension’ or ‘athesitic wars’?
Tim, just checked out the Eshe Skateboarding site an there are no skateboards showing derogatory attacks on Islam, just all other religions. Waste of time running the story at all about a bunch of gutless morons.
Hi Justan Aussie,
It was there. They may, sensibly, have removed it.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
@Dabug, the $30b tax write off you claim religions “enjoy” is only a small part of the billions of dollars all religions spend on supporting the community, families, destitute and otherwise vulnerable who would otherwise be exposed. Taxing these selfless institutions would only leave less money available to help the poor.
But the facts aren’t anywhere are much fun as any opportunity for you to add your throw away, off topic, anti-religion line, is it?
And this skate board company is demonstrating what desperate lengths people are prepared to go to if your product has no redeeming features.
Props for the response Tim, perhaps my response was a bit of a knee jerk reaction, but given recent events I can’t say I really blame you. It’s one thing to put yourself out there, but it’s not entirely fair to subject staff to the same thing, unbeknownst to them.
You do a great job on the blog anyway, and I don’t doubt there was a lot of two and throwing on how to tackle this topic. I find it interesting that when I looked on the skateboard company’s website, I couldn’t find any pics of the controversial design. I guess that says a lot about them if they’re not even willing to run the pics.
Don’t worry kids, if you thought your religion was missed out, here’s one that Eshe did that didn’t make the original article…
http://i.imgur.com/Bkyas.png
I assume that’s the one that was (shamefully) missed out that we’re all talking about?
Tim, are you sure Brainwashing Brian doesn’t refer to Brian Tamaki instead of Brian Houston? The image looks a lot like Tamaki, a far more sinister religious leader. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Tamaki
Actually, I’d say that the refusal to mock Islam (due to fear of violent retaliation) will actually cause more damage to their religion overall. After all, what does it say about your faith when the general populace assumes the standard reaction to criticism is violence?
So while on the surface people may think Islam is benefiting from this self-censorship, the reality is that the whole religion is being damaged by the perception (and often reality) of being associated with bloodshed and violence.
Just compare the reactions of people (even athiests) when, say, proposing a new church for an area, in contrast with a new mosque.
@Bob (comment 42)
Spot on Bob! Without a doubt if a proposed mosque was being planned, based on the worldwide violence from Muslim’s recently, there would be a higher chance of uproar in allowing it to be built v a church, a Sikh temple, or a cathedral etc
It is truly sad, however it is different worlds and ways of life and it has always been the big cultural difference, which doesn’t look like changing anytime soon? (Islam v the world…)
Has anyone got an informed take on what the future holds?
I checked the website and there no image for Islam? Was it removed?
PS
I worked in Afghanistan with NGO’s for 3 years, and it made me even more determined to challenge thinking at home here in Oz
Well said Tim! Damn good response.
@Agno it’s definitely Tamaki. Destiny “church” sells gold rings to members in NZ… Hence the gold ring with a “D” on it. The whole thing was a stupid move by Eshe. Not even remotely clever.