X-Message-Number: 22809
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 20:57:24 +0100
Subject: Re: Honesty is the best policy
From: David Stodolsky <>

On Sunday, November 9, 2003, at 08:48  AM, David Pizer wrote:

> If we want "them" to understand and *accept* what we are doing we have 
> to explain the prospect of physical immortality to them.  We have 
> tried it the soft-petal way for the last few decades and our movement 
> has been at a slow crawl, now lets try an honest approach.

According to my last post on this subject, the cryonics movement is 
increasing exponentially. I have solicited data (members/suspensions) 
from the provider organizations in order to generate a more accurately 
estimate the growth parameters, but no response was received. It is far 
from a given that the movement has been at a "slow crawl," except in 
absolute terms. Therefore, any conclusion about the correct strategy 
for promoting cryonics has no factual basis in growth figures.


With respect to the overall question of marketing cryonics, there are 
some research questions that I have been planning to explore based upon 
some very interesting work, but have been unable to due to lack of 
support:

Mandel, N. & S. Heine (1999), "Terror Management and Marketing: He Who 
Dies With the Most Toys Wins," Advances in Consumer Research, 26, 
527-532.

Abstract:

In recent years, reports of death in American news programs have 
increased considerably. It is impossible to watch the local news 
without being bombarded with reports of the latest gory murders, fatal 
car crashes and deadly fires. How does this death-related content 
affect consumers' perceptions of products advertised within these 
programs? This paper demonstrates that high-status items are evaluated 
more favorably by individuals who are subtly reminded of their own 
impending mortality than by control subjects. In contrast, low-status 
items are rated slightly less favorable by mortality salient subjects 
than by their control counterparts.




On Saturday, November 8, 2003, at 03:07  AM, David Pizer wrote:
>
> The real challenge to cryonics and the prospect of physical 
> immortality is in the arena of public opinion.  If we can do a good 
> job there, walls will come down and bridges will go up.

For at least the last twenty years, I have been saying that social and 
political factors are the key to the success of cryonics. It now 
appears that this idea has finally been accepted, due to recent 
unfortunate events. However, without this realization being supported 
by some scientific work, it is unlikely to have much effect.

My original idea was to use Cryonics.info as both a marketing vehicle 
and a way to collect data on the effectiveness of marketing messages, 
however, without support this plan remains on the back burner.


dss


>
David S. Stodolsky    SpamTo: 

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