Medical marijuana is a burgeoning industry nationwide, and with rapid growth comes legitimate advertising. One medical marijuana referral company recently became the only one of its kind to tap into TV ads, airing the first ever weed-related commercial on a major network.
You can take a look at the commercial below. Be forewarned, though, it’s arguably the best worst TV spot in the long history of awkward advertising.
The quality of the video is certainly shoddy but the message resounds clearly: Buy clean marijuana for your medicinal purposes, not that dried up bag of oregano your dealer keeps trying to pawn off on you as “the stickiest of the icky.”
MedicalMarijauaDoctors.com, the company who paid for the ad, touts themselves as a simple and confidential site that pairs up patients to doctors, who prescribe marijuana of the medicinal variety. Keep in mind that this company does not sell marijuana and is simply a referral site. But if nothing else, this single commercial could be the beginning of a dank trend that where the collective public views more and more solicitations of a substance that was not-s0-long ago considered taboo.
“We recognize that the sale and use of marijuana is still considered very controversial and we are pleased that Comcast understands that there are legitimate businesses providing legitimate and legal services to people who have legitimate needs,” Said Jason Draizin, Founder and CEO of MarijuanaDoctors.com, Inc., in a statement. “To date, we’ve helped thousands of patients connect with proven and trusted doctors who can recommend medical marijuana.”
How long will it be until we see native ads like these airing in the middle of Celtics, Bruins or Red Sox games? It’s hard to determine. The medical marijuana industry here in Massachusetts is having some trouble taking off after a streamlined process that saw 20 dispensary licenses get awarded.
The issue, as far as the Bay State is concerned, has less to do with the prospect of profit and more to do with the legality of the licensing process. It’s come out that some hopeful dispensary executives weren’t truthful to the utmost on their applications while the relationship between Massachusetts Department of Public Health commissioner Cheryl Bartlett and former Congressman William Delahunt rings soundly of a conflict of interest.
Delahunt was awarded three of the 20 coveted licenses.
Dispensaries throughout the commonwealth are expected to be up and running come the fall of 2014. How many cheesy but decidedly awesome videos like the one above will riddle the tube remain to be seen. I think in this case, though, the more the merrier.
