Agency Campaign Edge had raised $150,000 by Thursday afternoon towards restoring an Australia Day advertising campaign that features two girls wearing hijabs – thousands of dollars over its original target of $20,000.
It set a new goal of $200,000.
A previous billboard, which represented a range of cultures, in Victoria was taken down .
Campaign Edge executive creative director Dee Madigan told SBS: "We were just hoping to get the billboard back up, and now we're going to be able to put up a billboard in every capital city in Australia, as well as full page newspaper ads," she saId.
The campaign had received “some great offers” from billboard companies, Ms Madigan said, and had booked Victorian digital and print billboards in Preston, Collingwood, Springvale, Endeavour Hills and Yarraville.
In Queensland, it had booked billboards in Kedron, West End, South Brisbane, Newstead, Fortitude Valley, Woolloongabba and Kangaroo Point.
The agency had also booked a full-page advertisement in publications in each state and territory, she added.
She said that the same people who complained that Muslims did not assimilate were the ones who made threats about an ad showing two Australian Muslim girls celebrating Australian Day.
"Australian Muslims are damned it they do and damned if they don’t. And that is not fair.
"We decided to do something about it, and the response was heartwarming and amazing and showed that Australians are a tolerant and decent lot who don’t like faceless bigots who make nasty threats."
Dee Madigan. Source: SBS
The billboards will start going up from Friday through to Australia Day, she said, adding that any leftover money will be given to which assists Indigenous children in need, and , an online initiative detailing achievements and needs of Indigenous communities.
The Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told 3AW: "I think it's great that we've got young boys, young girls from whatever background who are embracing Australian values, flying the Australian flag, proud to be Australian, proud to be part of our society," he said.
However, Silma Ihram of the Australian Muslim Women’s Association, earlier told SBS that while she was “encouraged by the fact that there has been a push back” over criticism about ad, it was not imperative to take it around the country.
And a Facebook page apparently run by some people in the Muslim community said it did not believe in the campaign at all.
'Muslims say no to Australia Day - Invasion Day - Billboard' said the billboard erased the history of the continent’s Indigenous people.
"The billboard is legitimising an interpretation of this nation's history that denies the experiences of its Indigenous communities and their ongoing struggles around this day."
Many Indigenous Australians identify Australia Day, held every January 26, as Invasion Day, or the day that the British First Fleet arrived and took over the land Indigenous people had occupied for more than 40,000 years.
The page added that the billboard further entrenched racism and Islamophobia into Australian society.
"Muslims have no moral or political ground to stand against Islamophobia if we get behind campaigns that are essentially settler colonial claims on land, bodies and historical memory."
