Can Cannabis Brands Advertise? | Herb

Some entrepreneurs want to launch a cannabis brand but don’t because of all the legal restrictions. Others that go through with launching a company must spend time understanding what’s allowed and what’s not, which can seem pretty daunting.

We’ve included some basic restrictions for cannabis brands below:

Product Restrictions: The most common restriction for cannabis advertising is promoting a product itself. While this recently changed on Twitter, other channels like Instagram and Facebook strictly ban the promotion of products, prices, and distribution.

Age Restrictions: It’s vital to ensure your marketing campaigns are not geared towards minors and anyone under the legal age to consume cannabis. In most states, it’s 21 years old and 19 years old in most provinces in Canada.

Content Restrictions: Certain aspects of content must be avoided when marketing cannabis, including images and videos of consuming/using cannabis products, making medical claims about products, testimonials or endorsements about the product, and giving false or misleading statements.

Channel Restrictions: Where you choose to market your cannabis brand and products is also important, and some of your chosen marketing channels might ban cannabis content. Traditional channels like print advertising for billboards may be banned in certain areas, as well as television advertisements. Digital channels may also struggle, as some platforms allow advertising while others make it incredibly difficult.

Location Restrictions: Staying up to date with local laws and regulations is essential. Whether it’s your state, province, country, territory, or county, knowing what’s legal in your area will help you get a better view of how to tackle cannabis advertising. This includes physical advertising like billboards, which may be restricted in certain areas like near public parks, schools, daycare centers, etc.