I hate to say it, but the rally we held this weekend in L.A. had basically zero impact on public opinion
because there was no coverage of it anywhere. Google "los angeles rally e-cigarettes" and see what you come up with. What a waste of time and energy.

We should have done it at City Hall, I guess, to have more impact? At least it happened, even if no one knows.
That is sad to hear. But not unexpected, unfortunately.
Most of the press covers only what is approved by the government and by the industry that gives them advertising money.
Why do you think most press articles blather on about "antifreeze" and "cancer causing substances" (failing to mention the minuscule amounts that are like those found in NRTs), oh and the chiiiiildren, while completely ignoring all the science, all the truth, all the facts? (And no, not because they have not received that information. They have.)
It is the same in my country.
But doing something, standing up for your rights, is never a waste of time and effort.
It is much better to say "I have done all I could" than to sit on one's behind and then whine and complain that some mysterious "others" did not take some mysterious "action".
I feel your pain. I was one of the fighters against that EU regulation on e-cigarettes.
We lost big time on 26 Feb, with only 130 of the EU members of parliament in our favor. And with corrupt bureaucrats and Big Industry and all their money against us.
BUT - and I say BUT - if we had not been active before, e-cigs would already have been banned (regulated as "medicines" and relegated to pharmacies) for all of the EU on 8 October 2013. We stopped that nonsense. At least.
Now, we will take a breather and fight on when it is time to turn that favor-Big-
tobacco nonsense into national law.
Standing up for your rights is never a waste of time.