(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/12/2022) Billboards for cannabis businesses are ubiquitous on Michigan freeways, but mums the word on marijuana from the radio and television, because the industry is still illegal on a federal level.
The cannabis industry in the state is expected to have more than $2.2 billion in sales, even as the price for the product has dropped to nearly $95 per ounce. This has left businesses without much wiggle room for advertising.
"You can go on a talk show and talk about your business, and you can go talk about what you're doing to help with expungement," said Russel Zwanka, director of the food marketing program at Western Michigan University. "You just cannot go on an FCC-regulated area and place an ad."
Zwanka will be teaching a class about marketing in the cannabis space starting in January. He said there are bigger fish to fry regarding the gray areas surrounding the businesses, such as banking and insurance.
He did say there were several things that applied to the advertising space in the industry. He said you can't make claims of health benefits, such as helping with anxiety or insomnia. You can't be deceptive. You can't make anything intentionally geared to people under 21.
"This came up with Joe Camel cigarettes and things like that," he said.
Denise Pollicella, the managing partner at Cannabis Attorneys of Michigan, said her business, though she doesn't sell cannabis, is one that is still impacted by the prohibition on a federal level.
"My law firm can't even advertise on radio because we have the word cannabis in our name," Pollicella said.
She said while broadcast advertising is technically prohibited by FCC regulations, that doesn't mean there aren't work arounds.
She said the more entangled a business is with the federal government, the less likely they would be to buck the federal law.
She cited the Cole Memorandum, which was a promise from the former President Barack Obama administration to turn a blind eye to marijuana, as a possible workaround for those in the industry. However, it was rescinded under former President Donald Trump.
She said she doesn't see the current administration pulling anyone's license while advertising in the state.
"I could definitely see the federal government saying, 'stop or else,'" Pollicella said.
She did say she doesn't see anyone in the state being able to do anything to insulate broadcasters against federal law either.
She said there are still other options.
"The billboard advertisers are very happy with this industry, because most of the billboards in Michigan right now have something to do with cannabis," Pollicella said.
She said social media and print have been another advertising outlet for cannabis businesses. She said the reach of social media could even exceed the reach of broadcasters.
"The cannabis industry has not, I don't think, missed broadcast advertising," she said.
One area where cannabis businesses can get their name into the public eye is through charities and nonprofit work.
Jack Kison, an advertising sales associate at WILX in Lansing, pitched pot purveyors to pair with nonprofits during public comment at the Cannabis Regulatory Agency quarterly meeting.
He envisioned a nonprofit holding an event that was sponsored by a cannabis business.
"So, coming in, I see this booming industry, and nothing in a whole lot really happening with it to circle back round to the community," Kison said.
He said he wasn't sure if nonprofits would be comfortable pairing up with the cannabis industry, but Pollicella and Zwanka said the industry is already helping local communities and not just for the marketing.
Zwanka said the Michigan cannabis company, Lume, has held expungement fairs as a way of becoming involved in the community.
"There's really no reason for that to be on people's record if it's been deemed to be legal now," he said.
He also said companies shouldn't be relying on community outreach to just be marketing driven.
Pollicella said her company wants to start putting out public service announcements. Not for any one company, but for the industry as a whole.
She said they would be used to fight the stigma that is still attached to the industry. She said the presence of an unregulated marijuana market exists in communities that have not embraced the industry. She said it is there, has been there and would continue to be there.
"That's the fantasy of it all, when we go to talk to a community about the licensed legal marijuana industry, they say, 'Well, we don't want marijuana here.' And it's there. It's just in a completely unregulated way that doesn't create economic development," she said.
Zwanka also said it would take a long time to do away with the century of stigma attached to the plant.
"There is misuse and there is proper use, which is the same thing about alcohol, spirits and wine," he said.
