Dive Brief:
- Marijuana advertising hit the top of publishing this weekend when two marijuana-related full-page ads ran in the Sunday edition of the New York Times.
- Leafly, a mobile app that allows cannabis users to review strains, ran what it claims to be the first full-page Times ad from a cannabis company in conjunction with New York passing the Compassionate Care Act that makes medical marijuana legal.
- In the same issue, the nonprofit GrassIsNotGreener.com ran a full-page ad warning about the dangers of marijuana legalization.
Dive Insight:
Regardless of where one falls on the issue, it's undeniable that marijuana advertising has arrived. It's a bit of a trip — pun intended — to see such huge ads for something that is still federally illegal appear in such a publication with the reach of the New York Times. That display really proves that there is a budding advertising industry that publications can and will be taking advantage of. Even if a publication wants to take an anti-cannabis stance, it seems there are advertisers looking for those spots as well.