Suggestion: Full Page Advert in The Economist and Wall Street Journal

[Timo Y]

If a few early adopters chip in, we should be able to afford this, now that BTC has almost hit 20 USD!

The advert will be aimed at decision makers who are not familiar with Bitcoin yet.

The point of the advert is to pre-emptively debunk gross misconceptions about Bitcoin.

If the first thing they hear about Bitcoin is that it's "an online form of money laundering", then this misconception will stick. And it will be perpetuated by mainstream media.

If the first thing they hear about Bitcoin is that it's "an open, decentralised accounting system where all transactions are public" they are going to have a hard time imagining it is "a form of money laundering"


But we need to be fast!

I reckon it's 2-4 weeks max now, before the tabloids are all over Bitcoin. We are at a pivotal point now. Let's do everything in our power to make Bitcoin successful.

wanted to bounce this idea off the community first before posting a bounty...

[enki]

~8500 well spent coins for the WSJ

http://www.gaebler.com/Newspaper-Advertising-Costs.htm

[koin]

If a few early adopters chip in, we should be able to afford this, now that BTC has almost hit 20 USD!

i can think of a dozen better initiatives

for instance, falkvinge is pointing out some: http://falkvinge.net/2011/06/04/bitcoins-four-hurdles-part-one-usability/

another is to do more translations of the bitcoin.org software
and there are still many languages without a bitcoin wiki or one that would benefit from an increase in the quantity and quality of content.

shoot for the day where no government is going to want to cut themselves out and not participate.

[Xenland]

I think we should hold off on the advertising its a great idea ive been thinking about using my google adwords, yahoo and facebook codes to start campains like this but the client for bitcoin is confusing to n00bs and people over the age of 40. Their is much confusion on what the difference is on address and wallets, etc, etc. Although we should start saving up now tho for such a campain we should hold off the launch until we have a better interface thats noob friendly.

[error]

The advertising is a great idea, but Bitcoin itself needs to make some progress first, such as a better client UI, availability of mobile wallets, and possibly a start at retail point of sale integration hardware and services.

[Gabriel Beal]

The advertising is a great idea, but Bitcoin itself needs to make some progress first, such as a better client UI, availability of mobile wallets, and possibly a start at retail point of sale integration hardware and services.

I agree with this.  Until our mom's can use it, there's less of a point in spending money on advertising.  Plus, it will give me some more time for the interminably long bank account -> Dwolla -> mtgox trip, so I can get more of my money in bitcoin before it goes up any more.

[Chris Acheson]

It seems like you guys tl;dr'ed this one a bit.  Here's the relevant part:

The point of the advert is to pre-emptively debunk gross misconceptions about Bitcoin.

The point isn't to get more users or inflate the price of BTC or what have you.  The point is to counter the coming tide of "bitcoin is for criminals" propaganda.

Whether this idea will be effective in terms of bang per buck (or rather, per BTC), I'm not sure, but the current user-friendliness of the client and other bitcoin-related tools is irrelevant here.

[error]

It seems like you guys tl;dr'ed this one a bit.  Here's the relevant part:

The point of the advert is to pre-emptively debunk gross misconceptions about Bitcoin.

The point isn't to get more users or inflate the price of BTC or what have you.  The point is to counter the coming tide of "bitcoin is for criminals" propaganda.

Whether this idea will be effective in terms of bang per buck (or rather, per BTC), I'm not sure, but the current user-friendliness of the client and other bitcoin-related tools is irrelevant here.

I didn't miss this at all, and I stand by my statement.

[imanikin]

I think it's best to let Bitcoin speak for itself from now on... 

[alkor]

I think it's best to let Bitcoin speak for itself from now on... 

I agree. Plus, advertising it will make it look like a Ponzi scheme - as if early adopters are trying to sell their bitcoins to late adopters and profit.

I think leaving Bitcoin speak for itself, and let people do all the work discovering about it will make bitcoins more desirable.