By Kathleen McLean
Facebook: Kathleen McLean
The first cannabis commercial debuted on major networks in the state of New Jersey in March 2014. It was produced by marijuanadoctors.com, a company that connected medically approved patients with doctors. The commercial can be seen on Youtube under “first marijuana commercial.”
It’s funny! It depicted the quintessential shady character slanging sushi from behind a warehouse building. It ended with the thought of, if you wouldn’t buy your sushi from a guy like this why would you purchase your cannabis from this same guy?
There was another commercial that came out right around the same time by Crop King Seeds. I also viewed this on YouTube. I enjoyed this advertisement. It took place in a bar and was humorous like the commercial from marijuanadoctors.com. The major difference is Crop King Seeds commercial included an F-bomb at the end, which made it confusing as to where this commercial would have been seen.
It seems like most of the United States is watching Colorado. Using the state as kind of a landmark when it comes to cannabis. The majority, if not all, of the states that have approved medical marijuana as well as recreational marijuana have been using Colorado’s numbers to get an estimate of what could be. Colorado’s first cannabis commercial was debuted in Denver in July 2015. It came out on Denver’s ABC affiliate KGBH. Brad Remmington, the manager of KGBH, was quoted as saying “we have set some strict guidelines on when these ads can run and content of the ads. Ads for recreational use, for example, cannot air until after 10 pm and cannot show people using the product.”
Because cannabis is still not legal at the federal level my senses tell me it may be a little while longer until commercials advertising for cannabis become more mainstream. One can only assume they will start running late at night and will end with some statement warning against using while pregnant. We do know successful branding pays off. Alcohol companies spend millions upon millions of dollars to advertise and market their products. It’s about time cannabis companies have the equal opportunity to do the same.
