April 21, 2014

"Jennifer DeFalco is creative director for Cannabrand, a marketing agency named for a mashup of 'cannabis' and 'branding.'"

"DeFalco and her business partner are banking on Colorado's marijuana industry becoming big business — one in need of flashy logos, memorable catchphrases and eye-catching ads."
[T]he whole point of marketing is to grow a business by reaching people who are on the fence about trying marijuana.

"So part of the rebranding of cannabis is really just making the dispensaries more inviting and more welcoming," she says....

"One thing that is interesting and important for the industry is this question of exposure to kids," says Margaret Campbell, a marketing professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. To reach new markets, she says, the industry as a whole needs to strip away the marijuana user stigma.
Reaching new markets... reaching people on the fence about trying marijuana... and it's interesting, this question of kids somehow falling within the grasping reach of marijuana marketers.

Get ready. This is where we are now, and there is no way back. The link goes to NPR, where the headline is "To Keep Business Growing, Vendors Rebrand Pot's Stoner Image" and there's a photo of a broadly smiling wholesome female marketer. NPR itself is participating in this optimistic rebranding. We're not just talking about decriminalization. We're talking about promotion and encouragement, and the state — and its complacent people — are in on the action via taxation.

24 comments:

Eric said...

Now that there is so much less opportunity out there it is critical that we suck the ambition out of the young.

MartyH said...

So you can market pot to kids, but not alcohol or cigarettes. Sounds like a loophole that needs to be closed quickly, like with cell phones and driving. You could not drive and talk legally on the phone without a headset, but for a time in most places you could drive and text, which is just as dangerous.

MartyH said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SGT Ted said...

And then the same state that funded the marketing effort will then denounce pot as unhealthy to justify milking money out of the industry via taxes to fund their never ending bullshit.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

There will be lots of money to be made in marijuana and this is a smart way to cash in. I don't think marketers will have any exposure if the Feds decide to prosecute or if (more likely) there will be litigation involving people smoking and doing stupid shit or the trial lawyers suing everyone when the first person ODs or gets cancer.

William said...

It is claimed that mankind first cultivated grain in order to make beer. Fire was first used not to keep warm but to char meat. Thus civilization was the unintended byproduct of beer and BBQ. Who knows what wonders marijuana will produce in the fullness of time?

rcocean said...

So what ARE the health risks for using MJ on a regular basis?

I'd like to know, since we're going to make it legal.

Interesting that we're all worked up about the health risks of everything , especially BIG TOBACCO, but MJ not so much. I smell manipulation by some people making some big $$$.

David said...

Another massively bad idea takes root in America. We have survived worse. Mostly because bad ideas tend to get replaced by other ideas, some of which are not as bad. But attach a bad idea to lots of money, it tends to persist.

Guildofcannonballs said...

It is high time Colorado pass legislation banning women being used as objects for advertising.

This War on Women and its effect on the next generation is not comparable to abortion.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Barack was sold as God.

Is that worse than weed*?

*Rarely do I use the slang for it but in this case it fits.

Acorn/blind/find/squirrel.

Twice/clock/right/stopped.

J said...

Is the state in on the gay sex too when an online dating site pays taxes?

Such a fool, Althouse.

Jay Vogt said...

This is so tiresome: another unsuspecting tool for the state thinking she's edgy and avant grade. I feel sorry for her. She chose the wrong pill and and now is just an another cell in the matrix. All you ever need to do is to follow the money, but everybody always forgets that.

It's a simple tried and true plan and it plays out in plain sight. But, the beauty part is that the losers think they are the winners. Easy as one, two, three.

1. Recruit more dope blowers.
2. Turn them into low-grade addicts as the THC numbs them into submissiveness (handy for the State, that).
3. The state of Colorado collect about $100 million dollars per year in tribute from the poor saps.

End of the day, what have you got? A servile, addict class that's too stoned to cause any trouble (save an OWI death from time to time) that peaceably lines up to surrender their treasure to the state. Ironically these prisoners call themselves free.

The only danger is that the whole scheme gets federalized some day. And it will. It's just a question of time.

There's a reason they don't teach about the opium wars anymore.

HG said...

not so sure on this..i do not reconcile the hostility to tobacco with the acceptance of pot....


http://www.policymic.com/articles/87743/harvard-scientists-studied-the-brains-of-pot-smokers-and-the-results-don-t-look-good?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social


FleetUSA said...

I don't think I want to drive in Colorado with all the potheads on the road.

Chuck said...

Althouse wrote: "Get ready. This is where we are now, and there is no way back."

I'm not so sure that I'd disagree.

But isn't that what they said in 1919 when the nation passed the Eighteenth Amendment, and later the Volstead Act? Prohibition, passed by way of a national constitutional amendment, would have seemed to me a far more permanent legal institution than the current patchwork of local laws concerning marijuana.

pm317 said...

NPR itself is participating in this optimistic rebranding. We're not just talking about decriminalization. We're talking about promotion and encouragement, and the state — and its complacent people — are in on the action via taxation.

wow.. this is all way too disturbing. What are they thinking that all these young people will become Steve Jobs?

John henry said...

Fleet said:

I don't think I want to drive in Colorado with all the potheads on the road."

Are you aware of any studies showing that MJ is a danger on the road?

I know of at least 3 that say it is not. 2 found a slight, though not statistically significant improvement in driving safety and reaction times. The third, in Australia found no deterioration.

Two were done under the auspices of the US dept of transportation, using calibrated amounts of MJ from the US govt farm. Drivers were tested on obstacle courses at various levels of THC in this blood.

The Australian study was similar. Don't remember if it was a state or the national govt.

The studies I have seen contradicting this looked at THC levels in crash fatalities. In many, perhaps most, cases alcohol was also found. I would suspect that Diet 7-Up would also cause crashes if alcohol was also present.

It will be interesting to see if MJ actually does cause any problems on the roads.

John Henry

Tom said...

I think Colorado should also legalize Ecstasy. Then I'd open up a store called Pot-or-E Barn. At the mall!

richard mcenroe said...

rcocean Cannabis is higher in tars and carcinogens, per weight, than tobacco. Used to be not much of a problem given the comparative availabilities of the two products. Now?

Ann Althouse said...

"rcocean Cannabis is higher in tars and carcinogens, per weight, than tobacco. Used to be not much of a problem given the comparative availabilities of the two products. Now?"

Those pack-a-day stoners are in for some serious lung problems.

But a lot of people are eating marijuana now, and I notice the stories about people losing their minds and doing horrible things like jumping off balconies are the nonsmoker types who are not calibrating the dosage.

Lnelson said...

When you get stupid on pot, you're the first person to know you are stupid.
When you get stupid on alcohol, you are the last person to know you are stupid.

As for lung damage, vaporizers are now prescribed by doctors in the California pot clinics (I think they are like the e-cigarettes)

OTOH, indulging in pot is not conducive to concentrating, learning, or to young minds developing.
Gov Brown in Ca has addressed this concern.

Michael said...

The white kid with dreadlocks will be out of work in short order, replaced by a fresh-faced kid with a degree in botany who can do more than riff on the quality of the weed being purveyed. Jennifer DeFalco is not wasting her time.

furious_a said...

A servile, addict class that's too stoned to cause any trouble (save an OWI death from time to time) that peaceably lines up to surrender their treasure to the state.

And why shouldn't the State cash in? States already spend millions of dollars marketing their respective lotteries to people who are poor and bad at math.

Mountain Maven said...

Acceleration on the slippery slope