X-Message-Number: 12056
From: "Enter your name here" <>
References: <>
Subject: Moving from Fringe to Mainstream.
Date: Sat, 3 Jul 1999 23:05:58 -0700

In Message #12040, Raphael T. Haftka suggested that it is entirely
understandable why most of the world continues to ignore cryonics, since
they view it as a "fringe movement".

If that is the case, then this supports David Pascal's recent suggestion
that the cryonics movement needs to invest in a formal, professional
marketing effort to reposition the public perception of cryonics.

To date, this has NOT been done.

Unlike the other examples Raphael Haftka offered (Y2K groups, religious
cults, white supremicists, government conspiracy groups), the reality of
death of those around us is encountered by one and all.  How many people
have never attended a funeral?

Death is not a fringe phenomena.  It is a universal experience.  It is not
possible to ignore when it happens to those we care about.

Our MARKET is universal.  Only the PERCEPTION of cryonics is "fringe".
Perceptions can be changed.

Remember...

Surgical anesthesia took more than 20 years to get past being viewed as
"fringe" here in the United States.  (It was perceived as unnatural and
opposed to God's will).

Getting doctors to wash their hands before surgery was opposed as "fringe"
for an entire generation AFTER it was demonstrated to dramatically increase
patient survival.

How do you move an idea from being perceived as "fringe" to being "serious"?

We already know how to do this.

Madison Avenue has mastered the approach.  They even know how to sell
sugared water.  That's a better trick than selling than snake oil!

If the proponents of anesthesia or surgical scrub had the marketing tools
then that we have now, it wouldn't have taken a generation.  It would have
swept the world the way fax machines suddenly appeared everywhere almost
overnight.

Cryonics is not really different.

We do not have to reinvent the wheel.

We only need to use it.

We already know what is required to sell something and move it from "fringe"
to mainstream.

David Pascal is right.

How can we begin?

-George Smith
-CI member

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