General Mills, the $18 billion multinational food giant, is targeting Denver marijuana consumers with Totino’s Pizza Rolls ads this 4/20.
The risky advertising campaign, which includes billboards, bus ads, and street-side ads, embrace the slogan “Stock Up B4/20.”
This is both promising and infuriating for those in the Denver marijuana industry because marijuana-related businesses are not allowed to openly advertise their products to the public, whether it be for marijuana, vaporizers, edibles, etc.
“I caught one on Colfax Avenue, so I took a picture of it and said, ‘It looks like we’ve really gone mainstream with this Totino’s Pizza Roll billboard,’” told Joe Hodas, the chief marketing officer at marijuana-infused products maker Dixie Elixirs to MJbizdaily.com. “In a bad way, (it’s) ironic for all of us now because you have a mainstream brand that can advertise on the backs of legalization. But we companies, as pioneers having paved the way for this, none of us can advertise our products on a billboard.”
This isn’t the first time that the global food giant General Mills or other food companies like Carl’s Jr. and Ben and Jerry’s have tried advertising to marijuana consumers. Last April, these companies used Twitter to advertise to marijuana consumers.
(Photo: @Ron_White)