Edit: Given that you have a personal relationship and friendship with these guys, I can see why you personally wouldn't want to be seen as being involved with a direct Bitcoin competitor. It's possible though that this dynamic could cloud your objectivity with regards to how BitShares should approach marketing.
It is a valid question. I believe my thoughts are grounded logic and strategy though.
I recall an article from a former senior management type from Skype who said behind closed doors they knew Skype was a direct competitor and had superior technology and costs than existing telephony technology. Their mission was to replace that industry. Strategically they decided to not position themselves as a telephony company at all for fear of regulatory obstacles created by the legacy telephony lobbyists. All be it for a different reason it is certainly a valid option to not go head to head with the 400 pound gorilla in the right circumstances.
In our case.
1. Our next wave of users, developers, eveangelists, marketers, and investors are most likely to come from the bitcoin space.
2. Every bitcoin enthusiast has been told by the majority of their friends that they were crazy for buying bitcoin and that they would lose money. There is tremendous ego involved to see bitcoin succeed for that reason, not just financial. Telling their friends they were right about crypto but wrong about bitcoin will not cut it at the next BBQ.
3. It costs a lot of money which we do not have to get the attention of many eyeballs and educate them on our brand new industry. Bitcoin enthusiasts are fanatical and will happily read any article that speaks highly of bitcoin posted on reddit. That means lots of free eyeballs that are the right eyeballs.
In my opinion it is strategically foolish to not take advantage of 3, by not acknowledging 2 and thus missing out on 1.
Btw, how many people have you successfully sold the concept of bitshares too? Have you had much success with "we are better than bitcoin?" (Genuine question, not cheeky at all.)