X-Message-Number: 1492
Date: 23 Dec 92 00:35:11 EST
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CRYONICS

To: Kevin Brown
 
 
Not for distribution to sci.cryonics. 
 
 
Kevin Brown has suggested that I should post an announcement 
and some background information about the cryonics contest in 
the January 1993 Omni magazine. Here goes. 
 
Almost a year ago, I suggested to Keith Ferrell, Omni's 
editor, that he could publish and publicize a contest in 
which people would be asked to write a short essay on the 
subject, "What I would most like to see and do in the 22nd 
century." The best essay would win a whole-body cryonic 
suspension for the person who wrote it. 
 
The contest would create several benefits, for Alcor and for 
Omni: 
 
1. Publicity. Omni has an excellent PR department, as I know 
from experience. Nothing like the contest has ever been done 
before, so it should be newsworthy. 
 
2. Names and addresses of potential members, whom Alcor can 
contact. Obviously, anyone who enters the contest is 
seriously interested in cryonics. 
 
3. A chance to improve the image of cryonics. By offering a 
suspension as a prize, it seems more valuable, less like a 
grim fate. 
 
4. A chance (maybe the first ever) for Alcor to control the 
media actively, rather than wait passively for journalists to 
do whatever they want. 
 
5. Omni would get to publish the winning essay, giving them 
free material and cryonics yet another mention. 
 
Keith Ferrell liked the idea. Alcor's board of directors 
approved it. There was then a long, long wait. Every few 
weeks, I called Keith and asked if he was still serious about 
the contest. He always said he was. He even asked me to write 
an introduction to preface the contest, explaining cryonics. 
This I did (with Alcor's approval). More time passed. I made 
more calls. I got paid for writing my introduction, but the 
contest was still not scheduled. Keith is a busy man, and 
there was always something more pressing. 
 
Finally, just before I went away to Australia for three 
weeks, I received word that the contest was being scheduled, 
and it was now a rush job. By this time, six months had 
passed since I'd written my original cryo-intro. I had 
learned more about cryonics, and I regretted that I hadn't 
done a better job on the text. I asked to do a rewrite. Alas, 
I learned that my previous version had been typeset, so there 
wasn't much room for revision. But I did improve the piece a 
little. (I'm still not entirely happy with it.) 
 
Meanwhile, negotiations were in progress between Ralph Whelan 
at Alcor and Keith Ferrell at Omni. I had no part in this, 
because although the contest had been my personal project, I 
was not asked to represent Alcor, since I am merely a member, 
not an employee or a director. Nor was I consulted about any 
subsequent developments (such as changing the essay topic and 
reducing the length from 500 to 250 words, which I think Omni 
chose to do). But Ralph did an excellent job of negotiating 
terms, and I doubt that I could have done as well. 
 
The January issue of Omni has now been mailed to subscribers, 
and it should be on the stands soon. Looking at that issue is 
a strange experience, since it presents cryonics in a way 
that no mass-market magazine has ever presented it before: as 
a normal, acceptable, *desirable* idea. Omni had to present 
it that way, because they were offering cryonics as a prize! 
I hope the lesson here is clear. 
 
Unfortunately, in my opinion, the photographs that appear 
with the article are not very edifying. I understand that 
some time ago, a photographer spent three days taking 
pictures at Alcor for a feature in Longevity magazine. 
Evidently he received a lot of cooperation--more than was 
wise, in my opinion. A (simulated?) body with bare feet 
sticking out from under a black sheet in an operating room 
lit to look like a dim crypt, with monitoring equipment under 
red lighting, as if it's a tool of Satan...! But what puzzles 
me as a mere cryo-consumer is that Alcor seems to have asked 
Omni to use these pictures. As I understand it, Omni did not 
realize that its sister magazine, Longevity, still had the 
photos lying around unused. 
 
I'm puzzled because here was an opportunity for Alcor to call 
the shots. Surely, among Alcor's members there must be a 
photographer who would have been delighted to take pictures 
of the lab the way WE like to see it. And let me tell you, 
Omni's rate of payment for photographs is sufficiently 
generous, the photographer could have flown across the 
country, if necessary, without complaining too much about the 
cost of the plane ticket. 
 
I try to maintain a double perspective on cryonics, as an 
outsider as well as an insider, because I think this makes it 
easier for me to write about cryonics for outsiders. When I 
apply my outsider's perspective, I see that cryonicists are 
very tough and very savvy about laws and justice. They win 
great victories in situations where the rules are clearly 
stated. But cryonicists can also be very naive in ad-hoc 
practical matters, especially where "image" and PR are 
concerned. This is commendable in that it means cryonicists 
present their case honestly. And yet, I feel sad to see 
photographs that shout "Death, death, death!" where the 
opposite message would have been so much more desirable. 
 
I am also unhappy that the magazine page describing the 
contest was written by someone at Omni who did not (so far as 
I know) get the choice of words okayed by Alcor. Consequently 
"death" recurs here, several times. Once again, Alcor could 
have controlled this. 
 
I would like to see an Alcorian actually given the job of 
handling PR, if any member has the qualifications and the 
time. Needless to say, I would volunteer myself, but I have 
no training whatsoever. I've promoted my own books on TV and 
radio, but that's about it. I'm still amazed that I was able 
to interest Omni in the contest in the first place. I'd never 
done anything like this before. 
 
Naturally, I hope the contest attracts a lot of entries, so 
we get a lot of new names of potential members. Otherwise, 
one of the main purposes of the contest will be unfulfilled, 
and I will feel that my idea was a wasteful failure. 
 
Meanwhile, I am very interested in hearing people's opinions 
on this subject and on PR in general. 
 
--Charles Platt

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