CBS Not High on Cannabis Super Bowl Ad
The cultural shift in attitudes towards cannabis use both medically and recreationally has been dramatic in recent years. However, the pendulum hasn’t swung quite far enough for one of America’s biggest cultural events. Earlier this week, Acreage Holdings, a major cannabis firm, announced that its Super Bowl advertisement touting the benefits of medical marijuana was rejected by CBS. While at first glance this news may seem like a major setback for the company, there might be a larger strategy at play here.
Acreage, which gained notoriety last year when former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner joined the company’s board, has been on a PR blitz since releasing the news that its ad was rejected. In an interview with CNN Business, an Acreage spokesperson explained that the company wasn’t surprised by the news and understands that major TV networks need to operate within an environment where marijuana is still illegal under federal law. The spokesperson said the company was “disappointed by the news,” but when taking a deeper look I believe that Acreage planned for this all along.
Instead of spending $5M+ on a Super Bowl ad, by going public with its rejection, Acreage generated a ton of free PR, using its rejection story as a platform to discuss the brand’s key messages. With stories from top tier outlets like CNN, Variety, USA Today, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Yahoo!, and New York Magazine, it’s hard to argue with the results. Even NFL star Chris Long chimed in on twitter, criticizing CBS for its decision. Along with the media blitz, Long’s tweet about the rejection generated nearly 40K retweets.
As Variety noted in an article about this news, Acreage isn’t the first brand to follow the playbook of publicizing rejected Super Bowl ads. GoDaddy.com is infamous for several promiscuous ads rejected by the Super Bowl, purposely creating advertisements it knew would be rejected in order to drum up attention and drive traffic to its website.
Based on the buzz it created, I believe Acreage’s Super Bowl rejection announcement was a successful PR stunt. It earned a ton of high-profile coverage without having to compete with other ads, pushed across its key messages, and did so in a way that wasn’t dismissive of CBS or the NFL — leaving the door open for potential collaboration down the line.
My one criticism is that it went out with the news of the rejection before the ad was ready. Ideally, the ad should have been ready to embed in these articles, driving traffic to its website and educating consumers on the benefits of marijuana. Although the spokesperson said the ad will be on the website shortly, not having it ready for the announcement was a missed opportunity. Acreage pulled off a successful campaign, but to be blunt, with some patience it could have been a touchdown.
