JULIE, IN 2019
YOU PASSED.
HERE'S THE WHOLE THING.
Seven years ago I asked your firm to take on Christian Cannabis and you passed. Fair. This page exists so that before we talk, you can see the entire campaign — not a pitch, not a summary, the actual site the public is going to see — and decide whether the firm that ran press for Billy Graham for forty years wants to run press for a billboard that says Billy Loves Willie in Billy Graham country.
Private entry page · Not linked from the public site · Prepared ahead of our call
Julie,
Your firm has been in my life longer than almost anyone in this business. Over the years you ran press for me on a handful of moments — and I ran most of it myself, the convention floor, the Ron Jeremy debates, the fast, the billboards. But I watched how you worked. You knew how to say "this is not an endorsement" and "this is worth your attention" in the same sentence and be believed. Nobody else could do that. Nobody else still can.
In 2019 I launched Christian Cannabis and asked you to take it on. You didn't. I didn't argue. You represent a big part of the American church, and the church wasn't ready.
This is different. On December 11, a federal law changes what hemp products can legally exist in this country. Asheville — a few miles from The Cove — is the town that will feel it first. So for forty days and forty nights before that deadline, we're running a cultural revival there: a billboard, a residency, music, film, a Bible tract, a witness booth, and one open chair for Franklin Graham. No church is on the hook. No sponsor controls the programming. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is not involved and we say so in writing everywhere.
The ask is simple. I want &Associates to represent me and the company for this campaign. Not because you'll agree with all of it — you won't — but because the only firm that can hold the line between "we love Billy Graham" and "this is not Billy Graham's campaign" is the one that stood next to him for seventy crusades.
One more thing. I'm not the only pastor speaking up on this. I'm working with a handful of ministers on a docuseries called Preachers of Plants — you can see it here: spiritualplants.co/preachersofplants. The password is preachers.
So you know where the company itself stands: we're working right now with one of the biggest private equity banks in the country to take Spiritual Plants to the next level. The flagship products are Holy Water and Rest Capsules. The overview we've prepared for them is here: spiritualplants.co/postoak.
Look at everything below. Then tell me no if it's no. But look first.
— Craig
craig@spiritualplants.com
SEE ALL OF IT. THEN DECIDE.
The home page. The clock, the law, Asheville, the forty days. Start here and scroll the whole thing.
The billboard, the reasoning, the disclosure, and the section on your firm — written before we knew if you'd say yes.
December 11. Section 781. What actually changes, with the enacted text separated from the proposed Senate extension.
The residency. Kenny McCormick IV, Post-It Pat, Isis Music Hall, 743 Haywood. Who shows up on which nights.
One Last Roach. Jacoby Shaddix as the ask, the room, the run of show.
A Bible tract for a hemp campaign. Read it before someone quotes it to you.
Every name is a proposal, not a signature. The rules for who gets in and what they don't get to control.
The draft release, assets, and language we'd want your red pen on first.
XXXchurch to Christian Cannabis. The full record, including the parts you already ran press on.
REPRESENT CRAIG AND THE COMPANY
FOR THIS CAMPAIGN.
Scoped to Billy Loves Willie and the forty days in Asheville. Craig Rose personally, and Spiritual Plants / Holy Water as the disclosed participants. Not the cannabis brands. Not the back catalog. This one campaign, September through December 11.
Hold the line: love for Billy Graham, zero claim on his name. You've written that sentence for forty years.
When the first pastor or the first headline calls it blasphemy, we want the phone answered by people who've heard worse.
Placement across faith press and mainstream press at the same time. Nobody else has both rolodexes.
Forty days is a long news cycle. Help us pace it so night forty still lands.
- 1. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is not involved, consulted, or endorsing. No affiliation is claimed or implied.
- 2. Billy Graham is a reference point in a conversation about how the church talks to people it disagrees with — not a sponsor or participant.
- 3. Franklin Graham has said no to cannabis publicly. We printed his reasons. He is an invited guest, not a target.
- 4. Every sponsor listed is a proposal. Nobody controls the programming.