What do you think of this for a pro-life billboard?

3-30-04 | delphinium

[Aquinasfan]

"If you don't want me, I'm not a baby."

It's brilliant.

Yes. The heart of the abortion battle is establishing the humanity of the unborn child. The image cuts through these defenses. No familiar slogan will cut through a pro-choicer's defenses, but this one might. They will read it and internalize it before they realize its meaning. Then it's too late to forget.

Adding "Vote Pro-life" at the bottom could be added as a tag line. I don't see it as essential to the message. Once a person "gets it," the voting will follow.

[Salem]

Looks good just like that, but good input from the Forum!

Like I say, "People are not accidents!"

[petercooper]

Life is precious. Please don't kill me.

perfect! and make the picture of the baby bigger

[Mr. Silverback]

OOHRAH! That is just awesome. Anytime you need help again, give me a shout.

[Mr. Silverback]

"If you don't want me, I'm not a baby." OR Life is precious. Please don't kill me.

I say Del should leave the sign as it is, but I like both those slogans a lot. We have one here in town that shows a baby's hand reaching for an adults and the caption, "Take my hand, not my life."

[kevkrom]

I'll suggest replacing "children" not with "babies" as many suggest, but with "people" -- reinforce the point that these are real human beings that are being killed.

[Mr. Silverback]

People will read the question and shrug it off with NOTHING as the answer. It also implies that people have a choice of either to do something about it or not.

Generally declaratives are better than interrogatives in advertising, but anybody who hears about 44 million dead babies and thinks, "Not my problem" is too cold-hearted to be reached with a slightly different phrasing.

[Delphinium]

Thanks for the idea.

I really do appreciate all of the input on this thread. Looks like we will be creating.

[YoSoy2]

"Take my hand, not my life."

That did it for me.

Tears streaming down my cheeks and the sides of my nose.

[Mr. Silverback]

Or how many scientists who might have found the cure for cancer?

There is an Indigo Girls song called "This Train Revised." It's about the Holocaust, but some parts of it are 100% appropriate to abortion.

Here's the second verse:
measure the bones
count the face
pull out the teeth
do you belong
to the human race
doctor doctor
are you unkind
do you shock the monkeys
cover our eyes
with clear blue skies

And here's the bridge before the fianl choruses (caution-graphic!):
here is a dancer
who has no legs
here is a teacher
who has no face
here is a healer
who has no hands
here is a runner
who has no feet
here is a thinker
who has no head
here is a builder
who has no back
here is a writer
who has no voice
these are the questions
these are the answers
stacked like wood

And the closing lines, more spoken than sung, after they build to a crescendo with a man repeatedly calling out "Stacked like wood" in the background...
these are the questions
stacked like wood
these are the answers
here is potential gone for good

God gave us doctors teachers and writers and we turned them into medical waste. May He have mercy on us.

[Mr. Silverback]

Del, one last thing...Yaelle's "If you don't want me, I'm not a baby" is brilliant, but I would wait until after the election to use it. Keep the focus on voting now, and then hit them with Yaelle's next year.

[Mr. Silverback]

Sorry, didn't mean to make you cry.

Don't worry, we're going to win this thing soon enough.

[BJungNan]

I would try something a little less confrontational. Let the image and the message be its own call to action.

Use the same picture but go with something like,

They suck their thumbs before they are born too!

Or

After they are born we don't kill them for sucking their thumbs.

The copy in the add you have up seems so confrontational that it just causes those that are on the other side to dig their heels in deeper. For those that are indifferent on the issue, asking them what they are going to do about it will likely lead to say to themselves, I am going to keep driving and let whoever put up that billboard keep on with the fight.

[BJungNan]

Thumb sucking is no reason to kill a baby

[Delphinium]

Good idea, I plan to use it. I have other potential billboards too.
If I was going to add a www.? What would be the best one?

[mabelkitty]

I can't bear the debate today.
The partial birth hearings have crushed me.
It's good, by the way - and very effective.

[Delphinium]

I meant it to be confrontational, but maybe you are right.

This whole billboard issue started with my two partners wanting a picture of a murdered fetus up there. They want confrontational!

My thoughts are that most people have already made up there minds to the wrong or right of it, but getting moral people to vote is my goal. I know countless prolife church goers who have never voted. Sure they are prolife, but think their vote isn't very important. They see the whole political thing as unpleasant, or they are too busy with baseball, or whatever and need to see that they have a moral responcibility to vote.

I believe, but could be wrong that people who dig their heels in aren't really moral people, and they would probably vote wrong anyway.

[UnbornChild]

Hi there. Someone pointed this thread out to me. I like the design, but I think it's too wordy--- plus the separation between "What are you" and "going to do about it" just jars people.

I agree that short is better, but please don't be BLAND. "44 million babies have been killed/vote pro-life" is so dang bland. I like confrontational. Can your son come up with a confrontational and catchy sentence in under ten words? That would be great.

However, I think this should be saved and distributed as a *banner* for possible use for sig files and banners on websites. I've tried my hand at this sort of thing. Some of them are pretty long, but I think they have their uses:

CLICK HERE FOR PRO-LIFE BANNERS"

Please feel free to use them and distribute them in a pro-life context. Put them in your sig files or on your websites, if you feel they could be of use to you.

One tag line I've thought of that I wish someone would use in a sign is "Diversity includes Unborn Babies" or "Tolerance for Unborn Babies". To appeal to liberal sentiments and all. :)

[Delphinium]

Can your son come up with a confrontational and catchy sentence in under ten words? That would be great.

We will try, can you think of any?

Thanks for everything, I appreciate the input.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

I don't know. I like the word "children." The left has heard "babies" so long they've gotten numb to the word. "Children" is a FAVORITE word of the left -- i.e., "for the children". "Children" is what these babies would have become if they hadn't been sacrificed on the altar of selfishness.

I've been intending for years to print a bumper sticker that says, "ABORTION -- HUMAN SACRIFICE TO THE GOD OF SELFISHNESS." Hey, and it's seven words or less :-D