CASAA | PR & Communications

[BigJimW]

My advice for PR? Keep it between yourselves. Then sock it to us on your website.

Hatching plans here on ECF is like watching grass grow. And when you finally put it up, it's like "big deal", everybody knows about it already.

Keep it propriatary and sock us with it when you're ready.

Just my 2 cents

[jj2]

Or at least discuss it in a closed forum.

[Webby]

Or at least discuss it in a closed forum.

That's the plan!

CASAA's server is in place and the internal forum is being moved there next week. The intention is to discuss and debate (publicly - what we can) there and on ECF, hold a CFV (internally) and place the public records of Board votes on CASAA.ORG

[Webby]

Chuck,

You make some very good points here and if CASAA were one person’s ideology or mission it could easily become the quagmire you describe. Hopefully the diversity of the membership (1000 members and growing) will prove to be the balancing factor.

There are some who think CASAA should adopt a pure advocacy and grass roots approach, others who feel we should document and fund our own studies and legal battles, still others say we should adopt some other group’s mission and support their efforts. I don’t see us as much in a pragmatic scramble as in the developmental stage of seeing exactly where our efforts will be best used.

Hopefully, you will now concede that fact sheets and glossaries are helpful, and perhaps something useful, but fall too short of the mark…

Definitely. CASAA is more than a consolidation or library of documented efforts and studies. We do feel that a central repository WILL make our efforts in swaying public and political opinion easier, as I’ll explain in a moment.

We (vapers) are a “fringe group,” and few in number. This is the overwhelming danger of a pragmatic approach. No matter how many statistics or data points we offer, the ULTIMATE statistic, is that only a fraction of a percentage point of voters will be affected.

Or care. This is why putting a public, human face to our members and the cause is so vital. I’ve said this repeatedly – if this were a debate or legal issue, analogs would be taken off the market immediately. Since the world’s economy revolves (in part) due to the financial wheels of Big Tobacco, no one realistically assumes that will ever happen.

It’s like watching a sci-fi movie. First you have to establish what “reality” is and then make the surreal leap of faith to accept the “rules”. In this fight, we can find the legal or medical Holy Grail of proof and the powers that be will simply change the rules. This isn’t a movie. There is no smoking gun piece of evidence we can get the local news stations to play or spread virally across the internet that will expose the bad guys and allow us to win.

Even if we can prove everything we’ve ALL been saying, it won’t change the tide because the non-smoking public simply isn’t interested. If they don’t care, the politicians don’t care. Which makes it easier for them to listen to the lobbyists and vote to pass legislation that provides the path of least resistance to them.

So what do we do? We change public opinion. We make vaping public. We bring it home. Everyone knows someone who smokes analogs and wishes they didn’t. Vaping is a smoking alternative. It will never make the “quit or die” groups happy, so we don’t solely focus the fight there. We fight it by increasing our numbers and being visible.

Since it has become a tradition here in America that the “majority rules,” what we have to do is increase our numbers. Period.

Exactly. We need to bridge what other groups and the ECA can not – suppliers and people outside the forums. Suppliers sell to hundreds of thousands of users who wouldn’t know this (or any other) forum if it bit them on the atomizer. They buy online or from kiosks and tobacco retail outlets without ever setting foot on another website other than the one where they bought their first e-cig.

This is my personal reason for being involved in CASAA. I am a supplier. I know dozens more who would sooner cut off their arm than send thousands of customers into a flea market of other suppliers and Chinese carnival barkers on forums like ECF.

The ECA has stated there are a million e-cig users (based on starter kits sold, I believe). For argument’s sake, let’s say that number is inflated and only 750,000. I don’t know the actual numbers of ECF, RtV and VF, but let’s say (on the high side) they number a whopping 75,000 (pretty generous assessment IMO) That means (at least) 90% of users ARE NOT IN THE FORUMS.

This is why CASAA doesn’t allow advertising or more than a 25% supplier representation on the Board. Court the suppliers and give them no reason to see CASAA as a threat to their business and the numbers will grow beyond belief.

[TokenVapor]

I brought this up in the Slogan sub-forum. What do you think of producing a 30 second tv spot?

I'm an actor with an extensive film network base in the Detroit area. Voice and Traditional Actors, Directors, Agents, Casting Directors, Writers, Crew etc. etc.

Let me know by PM if CASAA is interested and I'll run it through the proper channels. This is production assets only. Airtime will have to be secured by CASAA.

[Webby]

TokenVapor,

This sounds very interesting. Can you PM me with details?

[TokenVapor]

So far I have five actors, a production assistant and a casting director all express interest. Can't really go any further until I have an outline or an idea of the content you want.