cannabisnews.com: Advertisements Encourage Freedom to Smoke MJ





Advertisements Encourage Freedom to Smoke MJ
Posted by FoM on September 24, 1999 at 17:24:33 PT
By Jim Welte
Source: Reuters
The technology industry has transformed what was once the epicenter of the hippie movement into SUV playland, but there are still indications that San Francisco moves to the beat of a different drum.Where else can you expect to see advertisements at bus stops for NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, while cigarette ads are banned from sight?
For a 30-day period that ended last week, NORML ran advertisements with a cannabis leaf and a message that read: ``Honk, If You Inhale.'' The ad was accompanied by a call for law enforcement officials to stop arresting responsible pot smokers.A second ad had similar layout, with the text: ``A pot smoker is busted every 45 seconds -- and you wonder why we're paranoid.''``This is a consumer rights issue and the theme is fairness,'' said Keith Stroup, executive director of NORML in Washington, D.C. ``That's an issue that resonates with people.''In contrast, under the settlement terms of a lawsuit the State of California's Attorney General's office brought against the tobacco industry, tobacco companies are banned from promoting their products through billboard advertising outdoors, in shopping malls, arenas, stadiums and video arcades.The key difference, according to Nathan Barankin, a spokesman in the state Attorney General's office, is that the NORML ads fall under a gray area of protected political speech and therefore do not violate laws prohibiting advertisements encouraging people to commit a crime. However, tobacco has been found to be harmful to people's health, marketed to children in a particular way and found to be addictive, he said.The tobacco ad ban primarily focused on keeping tobacco ads away from young people, but NORML and Outdoor Systems, the CBS Corp.-owned company that manages the bus shelter ad space, found themselves in hot water just a few days after the ads appeared. Two of the ads were placed in close proximity to schools in the city and they were quickly taken down after San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano placed a call to Outdoor Systems San Francisco office manager Lew Lillian.Stroup said he was pleasantly surprised by the response to the ads and they were the initial step in a long-term plan to raise the debate on the issue of decriminalization of marijuana. Similar campaigns, developed by independent San Francisco agency Underground Advertising, are planned in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles in the next year.The San Francisco bus shelter ads cost about $31,000, the agency said. The same ads will be used in future campaigns, although no national budget has been set.``Twenty million Americans smoked marijuana in the last year and seventy million have smoked marijuana at least once in their lifetime,'' said Stroup. ``So we want to try and activate our own core constituency before we want to try and win any converts. They already have the most at stake and we want to suggest that there's nothing wrong with being a responsible marijuana smoker.''NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Friday September 24, 5:57 pm Eastern TimeCopyright © 1999 Reuters LimitedNORML Foundation Launches Marijuana Ad Campaign-8/20/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2563.shtml
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