Founder of the Doused Zippotricks.com Website to Launch Lightertricks.com

After being shut down August 25th last year due to political pressure in the U.S., Norwegian native Morten Kjølberg (36), founder of the Zippo Manufacturing Company sponsored zippotricks.com site, will launch Lightertricks.com on July 4th.

OSLO, NORWAY (PRWEB) July 1, 2004 --- After being shut down August 25th last year due to political pressure in the U.S., Norwegian native Morten Kjølberg (36), founder of the Zippo Manufacturing Company sponsored zippotricks.com. This site will launch Lightertricks.com on July 4th. Lightertricks.com is a new site dedicated to the art of performing tricks with lighters. Whilst the site has been operational since February this year, access for U.S. and European citizens has been blocked. With the global launch of Lightertricks.com on July 4th, eager tricksters from all over the world can again get together and enjoy the 655 different mind-boggling moves and routines available on the site. Lightertricks.com now attracts over 1 million people. During June of last year the Zippo Manufacturing Company received several letters from fire professionals and organizations expressing concern about the promotion of tricks to encourage young adults to "light up with Zippos." The heat on Zippo was turned up after several articles, prompted by The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), were published in both The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. As reported by the Associated Press 8/27/2003, Zippo Manufacturing Company decided to close down the company sponsored Zippotricks.com site on August 25th and completely disassociate the company from the lighter trick concept.

Morten Kjølberg founded zippotricks.com in 1996 and entered a business relationship with the Zippo Manufacturing Company in 2001. As the owner to the rights of the site content and the concept, Kjølberg decided to continue without Zippo as a partner when zippotricks.com was doused.

"In my opinion the criticism raised against the lighter trick concept was blown completely out of proportion. The act of performing tricks with a Zippo lighter is about eye-to-hand coordination, not setting body parts aflame as some of our critics so unrightfully seemed to think," says Kjølberg.

The origin of Zippo tricks dates way back to 1933 when the first Zippo lighter entered the U.S. market. "We know for a fact that the American GIs during WWII killed time doing tricks with their Zippo lighters," Kjølberg continues.

Immediately after shutting down the site, Kjølberg personally received more than 20,000 E-mails, mostly from Americans, expressing frustration and anger over the fate of the site. In the following days letters and E-mails of support kept pouring in from all over the world as the news of the site's fate made it to the international media.

"Needless to say I was completely overwhelmed by this response and it inspired me to pick up the pieces and continue. I guess when an influential few tell me that I can't do what I do, it brought out the stubborn child in me," says Kjølberg.

Bigger than ever

The new tricks site, Lightertricks.com is bigger than ever, scoring an average of 150 million hits/1 million unique visitors per month. Every month video clips of tricks are downloaded approximately 25 million times. The users of the site are mostly young adults between 17-28 years of age.

"We estimate that site traffic will double almost over night when we launch globally and are able to grant access to tricksters in the U.S. and Europe. Traditionally, the United States alone used to generate 65% of our over-all traffic," Kjølberg says.

During the next 6 months Lightertricks.com have plans to launch Japanese and Chinese language versions of the site. In addition a series of three educational trick DVDs, a CD-ROM and a book concept will be made available in Europe and the U.S.

"The first DVD is completed and we are currently seeking distribution. Ideally it will be available in stores this fall," says Kjølberg .

Open invitation to NFPA

"There is no statistical evidence to support that performing lighter tricks is either dangerous to the user or that it represents an increased fire hazard. We place a lot of emphasis on safety and teach our users how to be responsible when performing tricks. Although I feel that the criticism towards the old zippotricks.com site by the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) and others was unfair, it taught me a valuable lesson," says Kjølberg.

Several measures have been taken to improve the overall emphasis on safety. In a letter to James Shannon, president of NFPA (10.06.04), Kjølberg invites the organization to engage in a constructive dialogue to help improve awareness of fire and personal safety amongst tricksters. "We are not looking for their endorsement, but for their sage advice on fire safety," says Kjølberg and continues; "The lighter trick concept has grown too much in popularity over the past years -- much thanks to the NFPAs efforts - to be silenced. Instead of wasting time trying to shut us down it would be wise for both parties to choose communication over confrontation," Kjølberg concludes.

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