X-Message-Number: 23657 Subject: Meta discussion of Frozen dead guy days and email to government From: "Fred C. Moulton" <> References: <> Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 22:37:12 -0500 In reading Cryonet I was going to reply to two different messages but since there is a common underlying point I will combine my comments into one. It is important to think about Public Relations and the consequences our actions. In use the term Public Relations to include the entire range of activities and contacts related to government, press, scientific, industry and general public. Even showing up at the Frozen Dead Guy Days would be a disaster. One of the keys to marketing is being able to set the context of discussion. By going to the Frozen Dead Guy Days Alcor would provide the opportunity for persons opposed to cryonics and journalists who want a humorous lead for news story to set the agenda by making cute remarks and asking strange questions. At this point someone usually wants to argue that this would the time so state our case. NO! Anytime you put yourself in a situation in which you have to spend 30 minutes responding to a 30 second sound bite you have likely lost. Your long detailed explanation with footnotes and studies of fruit flies is probably not going to be seen by the audience. And what about the casual passersby who wander along the event, how many are going stop by a stand for a detailed explanation or will they just wander by and six months from now the only impression they will have had of Alcor is seeing the Alcor logo at the Frozen Dead Guy Days and thinking maybe there is some connection. Another point of good PR work is control the message. Having a bunch of people (no matter how well meaning) sending off emails is not controlling the message. Please do not give out a list of email addresses without some mechanism in place to limit the downside. The minute I saw that list I knew there would be people who would send inappropriate email. I sent my message in a small attempt to counter-balance the inappropriate email. What needs to be done is get a set of volunteers in place well ahead of time; these volunteers need to have the writing skills with which to sound credible and the good sense not use inappropriate words, not to make reference to Nazis and not to accuse someone of being a murderer. Then if a mass email campaign is ever needed in the future then the list of address is given to this specific set of volunteers and to them only. The best thing for everyone else to do is be quiet. This is not intended to be elitist, it is meant to be pragmatic. This is the same point that corporations make when the tell their employees that when a reporter calls them to always direct the call to the PR department. My point is that PR and marketing are difficult. Just having a technical or philosophical winning argument is not enough. And charging ahead without good PR and marketing has serious downside risk. Fred Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23657