Ready for a TV commercial promoting the fight against the FDA’s deeming ban? A group of Oklahoma vendors, led by Rob Ragan from Vapor Kings and Jennifer Burton of Vape This have made one, and they’re paying to run it on local TV and radio. “I wanted the spot to appeal to non-smokers, smokers and even current vapers,” Ragan told me. They’re so committed to fighting the FDA that they’re offering the commercial free to businesses in other areas. “We want other shops to use this spot in their own local markets,” he explained. “Get donations from others and get it on TV! We will even modify the ending to list your local shops that have participated in the airing.” A professionally produced 30-second TV spot at no cost is an impressive gift to the vaping community. People serious about running the ad can contact Ragan directly for a link to download it.

Ragan is also urging vapers to share it widely on social media. “Last night Jennifer asked me to post the video on several Facebook channels, which I did. As of right now, less than 24 hours later, the video has had 26,000-plus views and has been shared from my post over 1,900 times. Simply amazing!” Vapers could also send it to friends and family. If you have any contacts in the media, this would make a nice story — small businesses fighting the mighty FDA’s regulatory overreach. Also, vendors could run it on screens in their shops, and encourage customers to complete the pre-written letter in the store.

August8th.org needs more visitors!

Wherever you share the commercial — or even if you don’t — the point is to get people to participate in the August8th.org effort. CASAA has made it so simple to write your Congressional reps that it literally takes no more than one minute. There are millions of vapers that haven’t done this yet, and that needs to change. But even for those who have, we still have an huge opportunity to double, triple or quadruple our impact by getting non-vaping friends and family involved. When you share the video on Facebook, include a note specifically asking your non-vaping friends to help. Explain that it takes almost no time, and that all we want is to preserve independent vapor products to help save the lives of smokers and ex-smokers. Tell your friends that what the FDA wants is to hand vaping to the Big Tobacco companies they’re comfortable dealing with. Tell them that this has nothing to do with safety or protecting children. We simply want the chance to keep the products we currently have.