As Canadian companies rush to cash in on the impending cannabis legalization, they’re running into a major hurdle: they can’t advertise their products.
In a sharp departure from decades of flashy, vibrant campaigns for tobacco and alcohol, federal regulators have opted to come down hard on the cannabis market, forcing utilitarian and subdued packaging with heavy restrictions on advertising.
The result is companies getting as creative as possible – and trying not to break the law in the process.
With conventional advertising largely prohibited, social media is quickly becoming a new frontier for companies to test messaging. Tweed, the main subsidiary of multibillion-dollar Canopy Growth, scatters its social media profiles with posts in a not-so-subtle indicator of its product.
Credit: theguardian.com
MedReleaf, a medical cannabis company, has released a “cannabis inspired” beer, with 4.20% alcohol content – but no cannabis. “You have to be creative in what promotions you do,” says Luvlina Sanghera, head of Jekyll+Hyde, a Toronto-based marketing firm advising cannabis companies. With all of its restrictions, she likens the current state of the industry to the prohibition era.
Health Canada has strict proposed advertising rules: companies can’t promote people or events, celebrity endorsements have been ruled and, most critically, promotions of “glamour, recreation, risk, excitement or daring behaviours or a positive or negative emotion” are prohibited. Instead, by hosting concerts and gallery shows and showcasing early iterations of future products – and ensuring those products don’t contain cannabis – companies are able to sidestep advertising restrictions.
Credit: theguardian.com
