Regardless of whether you’ve had personal experience with cannabis or not, it’s difficult to not know a little about the subject as it becomes more and more acceptable to talk about in films, music, television, publishing and marketing. The cannabis community goes beyond the Seth Rogen or Kevin Smith depictions or gangster rap stereotypes. Sure, you’re always going to find stereotypes sometimes, but as legality opens the way to new research into the medical, therapeutic and recreational uses of this historically controversial plant, it’s audience is continuously broadening.
Today is the Weed Advocate’s holiday, 420 or the 20th April if you’re European. There are many myths about the origins of 420 depending on where you are in the world and the general social opinion concerning weed. The term 420 appears to originate from a group of five Californian teenagers in the 1970s who used it as a code word and it’s grown from that with a little help from weed advocates along the way. 420 advocates such as Grateful Dead, Cheech & Chong, Doug Benson, as well as references in mainstream media like Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, many of Judd Apatow’s creations or indie successes like HBO’s High Maintenance have helped develop dialogue that been left stagnant . There’s now a worldwide community of cannabis advocates from all walks of life and an industry that’s raised an impressive $9 billion in legal sales in 2017 in America alone, that’s before the influx of recreational legality has fully kicked in and since California and Nevada are set for recreational cannabis success, imagine the potential growth! Europe’s slice of the marijuana pie sits famously in the Netherlands, but with recent law changes in Spain, Poland, Germany and Portugal’s drug decriminalisation policy, the ECR (European Cannabis Report) predicts a European market worth over €56.2bn by 2021, that’s if more countries actually followed the pro-cannabis path.
With stats and policy change as impressive as we’re seeing it makes sense to open our eyes to the possibilities and opportunities within the cannabis industry. Regardless of the angle you approach it from, be it food, drink, medicine, recreational or cosmetic industry , there are endless options for application given the right chances and laws. To celebrate 420, we wanted to share with you a few brands who are kicking derriere at cannabis content with creativity and grace.
Lobster Media UGC Happy 420 Photography Collection
Our client Lobster Media are on trend during 420 with a collection of photography curated around the theme, so if you’re creating content about cannabis you can quickly search and license a high quality photo sourced from a vast library with just a few clicks. We wrote the copy for the collection and you can also read our shiny new copy on other pages of the website right now. Sure, cannabis content isn’t relevant to everyone but if you’re creating news, food or counter culture content, this could be super useful for you, especially today! You can view the Happy 420 collection here.
Milk Makeup Launch Kush Mascara on 420
Milk Makeup aren’t new to cannabis culture, back when they were a wee start-up one of their products caused a little controversy; a pack of blotting papers that doubled as rolling papers. However, when you have female superstars as huge as Rhianna waving the flag for weed with her Jamaican heritage combined with growing counter-culture and the i-D magazine aesthetic of Milk Makeup; it totally works. Milk announced their Kush Mascara this week, enriched with CBD oil (the non-psychoactive essential oil derived from cannabis) with some striking visuals and videos, it was received with thunderous reaction and engagement on social media. With the support of retailer, Sephora, this is a great step towards introducing weed as a beauty & wellness ingredient to a mass audience. In the application of a mascara, Milk claims the CBD oil adds thickness without fallout, whilst conditioning lashes. Discover the awesome beauty brand that is Milk Makeup on their website. Probably one of our favourite beauty brands in terms of visuals & online presence and we haven’t even had chance to try it yet. Read more about them here.
Netflix embraces Pot Culture with dispensary pop-up & cannabis sitcom
When a brand as huge as Netflix accepts cannabis culture, it’s surely time to listen up? If you haven’t already binge watched Chuck Lorre (Big Bang Theory, Two & a Half Men) created sitcom Disjointed, maybe this marketing stunt won’t make much sense, maybe you should do that first? Regardless, Netflix partnered with a West Hollywood dispensary to curate a series of 10 cannabis strains inspired by some of their top shows, whilst highlighting the vast variety of flavours and effects of the cannabis strains which they’d curated to match the moods of each Netflix show. Not only did this pop-up make for a totally legal merchandise opportunity, selling over 100 jars, it also created some stunning visuals to use for PR and social media; with a particularly Pinterest and Instagram friendly aesthetic. You can check out the full story and see more photos in this article on Ad Week, see how many of the Netflix show references you can guess before reading the captions.
Did you know that Whoopi Goldberg owns a cannabis beauty range?
Beloved actress, comedian and American personality, Whoopi Goldberg has not been quiet about her advocacy of weed over the years. Back in 2016 Whoopi partnered with Cannabis Cup winning edibles creator Maya Elisabeth to launch Whoopi & Maya, a stunning range of apothecary inspired natural beauty products. Not only is this a beautiful multi-purpose luxury brand regardless of it’s medical cannabis credentials, it’s run by two influential women who are winning it at business. The Whoopi & Maya range is specifically designed to help women deal with menstrual cramps, minimising the need for prescription medications and offering women a more holistic way to treat their pain without the side effects they may find with other medication. Since the range uses CBD, there are no side effects and no psychoactive presence, so it’s safe to use without get high!
Enjoy free cannabis content during Viceland’s Weed Week
Whether you’re a newbie to the topic or an established advocate, there’s no denying that Vice have played a huge part in increasing balanced and diverse content around cannabis. Well known for pushing the boundaries there is Vice content covering everything from gang culture, weed politics and policy change to cannabis cookery shows. Yes really, Vice has created a stunning, high quality batch of cannabis cookery content, check out Nonna Marijuana for starters. Anyway, this year the Vice TV network, Viceland, are celebrating 420 with Free Weed! Well, not quite, but with free weed content at least, with a stylishly curated landing page of the best Vice cannabis content to enjoy on 420, combined with a disruptive ad campaign too. We have a feeling that Trump won’t be happy about the below marketing stunt they pulled in the run up, as he continues to challenge the cannabis industry. Whether or not this makes up for some of the shady behaviour of Vice bosses that’s been uncovered, is yet to be confirmed.
A brief history of mainstream brands on social media during 420
As legality changes, more mainstream brands have been tagging onto 420 and this goes as far back as 2015, if not further. Whether they’re looking to take advantage of the increased appetite it provides or just giving a firm nod to the counter culture they relate to, acceptance on the subject is increasing. Just check out this article on Ad Week for an overview of cannabis themed social content from Ben & Jerry’s, HBO, Pepsi, The Body Shop and Spotify acknowledging 420. We never know who within our audience may be a cannabis advocate, which means we need to dig deeper so that we can understand how to relate to them and how to contribute to a growing conversation.
Close enough… pic.twitter.com/lNlLDXtSet
— Ben & Jerry’s (@benandjerrys) April 19, 2018
Hope you found this interesting. If you’re ever looking for help with your content, social media or marketing check out our portfolio and get in touch to discuss how team KITSCH.inc can help you. Happy 420!
Co-Creator @wearefoodscouts & @KitschInc. Digital Marketing & Creative Direction. Illustration, writing, creativity & style. Fan of films, TV, cartoons, colourful hair & clean beauty. Blogger since 2009.
