X-Message-Number: 9628
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 01:53:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Free Storage

James Halperin suggests free storage of DNA or brains as a promotional 
incentive.

In Omni magazine, Alcor offered a complete signup-and-suspension, free of
charge (via the Omni Immortality Contest). All you had to do was write a
single page explaining why you wanted to win the prize. 

News of the contest reached several million people in addition to the 
core readership of Omni (about 500,000 at that time, I believe). The 
contest was featured on the front page, and five interior pages discussed 
the merits of cryonics.

This massive publicity attracted fewer than 400 essays.

I conclude that "freebies" do not sell cryonics--at least, not very
successfully. I assume that this is because cryonics is still a fledgling
technology. As such, it has not acquired monetary value in people's minds.
Consequently a discount may not mean very much. 

--CP

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