In 1994 the Irish pro-life organization Youth Defence produced a radio ad called “Project Truth.” The ad simply cited scientific facts about prenatal development with a closing line that was not only a clever play on words but chilling given the preceding information: “Have you any conception what abortion is really about?”

Well, the ad went too far for the Irish government, which banned Project Truth from the airwaves as “too political.”

So hello new media, which gets around censorship like this. Last week YD re-released Project Truth on YouTube. Explains YD, ” The radio advert is the background of some amazing footage of the unborn child in the womb. It’s challenging, thought-provoking, beautiful, and sad.” I agree.

YD writes:

We have some big plans for this ad and are already gaining momentum on this amazing video. Please take a moment to view the video on YouTube, ad a comment on our YouTube page, and please pass it along to your friends. Look forward to updates on our exciting plans for this video in the very near future.

As an interesting aside, YD actually had the last laugh back in 1994. At the same time its radio ad was banned, YD posted 110 of these billboards around Ireland:


The billboard in synergy with the banned ad created an “uproar,” according to YD.

There was a competing outcry for what was seen and for the suppressed free speech.

So the same media the government banned from airing the Project Truth ad on radio reported both the billboards and the ad censorship on radio, tv, and in print.

Great story.

As an aside, I’m looking forward to speaking at YD’s Viva la Vida conference in Dublin November 5-7!

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