No high five for marijuana TV advertising

May 2

posted by Dr. Maria Petrescu in Advertising | 11 Comments

The first recreational marijuana advertisement created for TV was in the talks and negotiations in Colorado with ABC's Denver Affiliate, but never aired after all, according to Advertising Age. Cannabis marketing agency Cannabrand tried to run a commercial for Neos, a vaporizer and cannabis oil company, before “Jimmy Kimmy Live”. Colorado’s Amendment 64 permits TV advertising if 70% of the audience is at least 21 years old. However, airway transmissions are still federally regulated and marijuana is still illegal at the federal level.

Nevertheless, there is a large and developing online advertising market in this domain, and even before receiving green light for TV commercials, there are a few ethical questions that advertising for products like alcohol and cigarettes has also brought into discussion. The current advertising context makes it even more complex due to the widespread access to Internet, viral advertising potential, and global access to online information. There are the classical issues related to exposing children and other vulnerable categories to this type of ads.

There is the potential of spreading the message in areas and countries where the product is illegal, even just for the fact that the advertisement is an excellent viral ad.

Is it ethical from the part of marketers?

Can you blame a marketer for creating a great ad for a product legal in his/her state or country?

As far as controlling distribution and access only in legal states and countries, it is clear it is extremely difficult online, with easy download, copying and reposting… Can we count on consumers’ common sense in managing these issues, their advertising entertainment and their brownie ingredients as a function of local regulations?

Maria Petrescu, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Marketing in the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University. She can be reached at mpetresc@nova.edu

This entry was posted on May 2, 2016 at 12:51 PM and has received 4001 views. There are currently 11 comments. Print this entry. Download attachment.

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• #1 by Idmirla Tatyana Jeune on 5/15/16 - 3:57 PM

  

  Who can fault the marketers’ optimism? In the past year, legal marijuana has become the fastest-growing industry in the country. Marijuana is a product that has elicited various views from the stakeholders over a very long time. This has been the case due to the controversial marijuana effects that to some extent is considered dangerous to humans, hence making it an illegal drug in many States in the U.S. on the other hand, however, there is the legal marijuana cultivation and sale that is triggered by its medicinal uses (Marijuana Business Daily, 2016). When advertised even for the right purposes, marijuana still draws a lot of controversial views hence making it hard to advertise and interest to raise such questions: Is marijuana good for health? Doesn't it damage people's brains? Do Americans want their teenagers to smoke marijuana? Do they want TV ads encouraging drug addiction, now that tobacco ads are being banned?
  For a multicultural market such as the U.S that has different legal standings, advertising for marijuana can work since its use, cultivation and sale are governed by different laws in different States. However, interstate boundaries act to thwart such advertisements in those states that have no such laws to allow the advertisements of such products they've outlawed. In a nutshell, there are mixed reactions by various states towards Marijuana advertisement in the U.S.
  
  Marijuana Business Daily. (2016). Marijuana advertising archive. Marijuana Business Daily, 1-2.

• #2 by dave on 8/27/16 - 1:26 AM

  

  it has got many medicinal properties

• #3 by Jeremy Marshall on 9/1/16 - 2:37 AM

  

  This is more of question of ethics. Is it wrong to advertise alcohol, despites its relationship to over 22,000 deaths a year? Is it wrong to advertise fast food, knowing that the product could lead to childhood obesity and diabetes? I wouldn’t blame the marketers. I would shift the blame to the organization, and operating within a certain industry bring that brings upon its own moral hazards. A Marketers goal is make people aware of a product and ensure availability. The problem is on both the demand and supply side of the equation. Is the company wrong from selling a federal illegal product? I believe so. Is the consumer wrong for desiring an illegal product? I would say yes. However, the marketer isn’t immune to the moral hazard of being a facilitator of this unholy matrimony of buyers and sellers.

• #4 by Octavia Wilson on 11/21/16 - 9:47 PM

  

  You can't blame a marketer who is advertising a product that is legal within his/her own state. Marijuana is already legal in a couple states and I think will eventually be legalized in all states, just how gay marriage developed into being legal in all states. As far as advertising, kids are exposed to things such as alcohol and tobacco everyday from TV ads, billboards, the Internet, etc. It is hard to block kids from seeing these kinds of things in today's society, they just should be taught what is right and wrong, and what is appropriate and inappropriate at certain ages.

• #5 by Stephanie Allen on 11/23/16 - 7:51 AM

  

  A marketer's job is to promote a product or service. If a marketer is given a job to promote a product in which it is completely legal in his/her state then they're just doing their job. I think it would be more of an issue if their weren't already many ads on alcohol and tobacco. If we're being quite honest, I don't think it's any different than the pharmaceutical companies advertising because marijuana is mostly medical based and some pharmaceutical's have far worse side effects. I don't believe it's unethical compared to what society already has currently and constantly advertising.

• #6 by James D'Annunzio on 11/23/16 - 9:59 PM

  

  You can not blame a marketer for creating a great ad for a product that is legal in his/her state or country. Marijuana is vastly growing in the United States and will soon be legal in every state. I think it is fine for marketers to use TV commercials just like how marketers use it for alcohol and cigarettes which are worse for you. I also believe they should be advertising marijuana in states that it is illegal still. Marketers have a job to o and i can defend them for making an ad that promotes marijuana.

• #7 by Erick Foglio on 11/23/16 - 11:03 PM

  

  Since the most recent election, recreational marijuana is legal now in a total of 6 states. I see marketing on TV for the food chain In-n-out burger and the closest one is california. The issue is more of an illegal substance advertisement. But if the product is legal in that state, you can't blame the marketer.

• #8 by Gabriella McCue on 11/25/16 - 11:17 PM

  

  Cannabis has been growing at an overall rapid rate all over the country. With Marijuana becoming legal for medical as well as recreational use in some states there is some controversy that surrounds the topic. Advertising is a marketing channel and through marketing we are subject to different types of propaganda to purchase a product. This blog leaves readers with the question of, is the marketing of cannabis ethical? The issues come from the legality of marijuana. An example to consider would be the advertising of alcohol, and even cigarettes. If both of these products are marketed it is easy to compare it to marijuana when comparing it to recreational use. Due to marijuana being used for medical purposes one could also compare this market to any other over the counter legal drug that is sold. Ultimately if a product is considered legal, there should be no reason it should not be marketed.

• #9 by Kim Cox on 11/30/16 - 11:17 PM

  

  Well it is only natural to want to advertise a product that is legal, however this product has been proven to cause brain damage, such as memory loss, if used over a long term. Nonetheless, this is still a transition period for this newly legalized substance and I feel that it is too soon to begin advertising it on television. Although alcohol and cigarettes are legal, it is illegal to advertise cigarettes on the television and there are strict limitation on when and how "hard alcohol" it advertised. My main concern here is for the children, they are so impressionable and information advertised can be taken out of content and cause permanent long term damage to many minors.

• #10 by Janelle Gutierrez on 2/13/17 - 11:46 PM

  

  This post was really informative, my view is that it shouldn’t be at fault of the marketer, in the end he or she is only doing was is being asked. I do think that promoting marijuana on TV could lead to different sorts of issues, but if you think about it its not that much different that what is already on TV. If these commercials were to go live, I just hope it focuses more on the medical aspect. I do not think this will be unethical at all, My only concern is for the children, kids nowadays are intrigued by anything and seeing it on TV or on any social media outlet may allow them to think that it is okay, so this has both its pros and cons.

• #11 by Zaneera Yassin on 6/6/18 - 9:49 PM

  

  Advertising cannabis online is legal as long as the platform it is being advertised on discloses that products/ services are not offered for sale / the consumer agrees to be over the age of 21. Personally, I believe it is also ethical to advertise Cannabis as a marketing professional whether or not Cannabis is legal in the state because consumers over the age of 21 have the right to information. Cannabis is one of the fastest growing industries in the US and worldwide and federal regulations stipulates that all legal cannabis transactions has to pass thru a track/ trace software(CCTT metric) whenever a cannabis product is purchased to ensure traceability. Furthermore, as the cannabis industry continues to develop sophisticated ERP and CRM systems are being developed to streamline track and trace. Microsoft was the first big player that captured the opportunity by partnering with Kind, a cannabis software company to process cannabis transactions that prevents illegal cannabis transactions.
  
  Here are is an interesting links to the ERP developments in the Cannabis industry: http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-marijuana...