POT ADS NEED STRICT RULES
“You’ve come a long way, baby.”
This is the famous slogan of the Virginia Slims brand — a cigarette marketed to women as a sign of the progress of feminism. Society has also come a long way in its thinking around the marketing of products like tobacco, and campaigns that make it seem glamorous.
We have learned that slick marketing images that ran through previous decades did not just influence adults. The Marlboro Man and images like it captured the imagination of kids, romanticizing smoking for another generation.
It is important governments continue to rely on this experience as the country rolls out the legalization of cannabis.
A 60-day public consultation period is underway. The federal government is gathering feedback on regulations for marketing and advertising of legalized marijuana. Of course, the cannabis industry wants latitude when it comes to selling its product.
As currently laid out, Health Canada has appropriately limiting rules. Cannabis and accessories can’t be promoted in national or international publications or broadcasts. Ads can’t use characters, testimonials or anything that would associate legalized marijuana with “glamour, recreation, excitement, vitality, risk or daring.”
The government should keep these strict guidelines in place, and also must ensure packaging is extremely plain and will not act as an enticement to potential young users.
Some industry representatives say it’s unfair to compare cannabis and tobacco, arguing that smoking tobacco is much more harmful to people’s health. But as an addictions researcher pointed out to the Ottawa Citizen last week, the developing brains of people under the age of 25 can be damaged by regular use of marijuana. Users can develop a dependency, and toxins and cancer-causing chemicals are absorbed when smoking pot.
David Hammond, a scientist at the University of Waterloo, is an expert in health warnings, product labels and branding for tobacco, food and cannabis. He says research has proven colours and images can be used to target youth.
“The sort of imagery that appeals to a 19-year-old legal established user — surprise — it also appeals to a 14-year-old non-user,” Hammond said.
Legalizing the use of marijuana has gained support because it would be a recognition of its widespread use in Canadian society. It’s important that the government does not plan to inadvertently spread the use of the drug, or especially, encourage its use by more and younger people.