Benzinga reports today..
Tumblr, the popular Gen Z-attractive platform took another step into the world of weed by inviting cannabis and CBD businesses to advertise on its network, though only in California and Colorado, for now.
What happened? What are the rules?
This week, Tumblr became one of the first large social media platforms to allow cannabis advertising when it updated its advertising policies to allow weed and CBD ad campaigns from California and Colorado.
Cannabis
The policy:
Tumblr restricts the promotion and sale of cannabis and cannabis-adjacent products and brands through advertising on its site, with the exception of California and Colorado. “Cannabis-adjacent products” include, but are not limited to, water pipes, rolling papers, and Weedmaps. They do not include hemp-derived CBD products, which are covered separately at the bottom of this section.
Any advertising related to the sale of cannabis or general promotion of cannabis brands must be (i) approved in advance by Tumblr, (ii) sold through our direct-sales team (i.e. not programmatic, and (iii) geo-targeted exclusively to people of legal consumption age in California and Colorado (that’s 21+ in both cases). Regardless of age-targeting, cannabis ads must not be designed, or appear to be designed, to appeal to under-age purchasers. Ads for cannabis must include all legally required notices.
Cannabis advertisements are entirely prohibited from running in any other location in the world right now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Not to be…blunt, but while we don’t make the rules, we sure do follow them, and we’d really appreciate you doing the same. So do be making sure you read through the following policies:
Things that are always no-goes: / Never allowed:
- Giveaways, for example, as prizes, of cannabis or cannabis accessories
- Cigarettes and other tobacco-related products and brands—these are prohibited from advertising on Tumblr
- We’ll say it again: cannabis anywhere outside of California and Colorado
Ads relating to cannabis should not:
- Be misleading or untrue, and will be given a common-sense sanity check before going live
- Encourage underage consumption of cannabis or otherwise be aimed, directly or indirectly, to those under the legal age of consumption (that’s 21+ in both cases)—for example, by using characters that kids would relate to or by using children as models. Duh.
- Encourage unsafe or irresponsible use of cannabis (for example, by featuring a someone driving under the influence, which would be totally messed up)
- Imply that consuming cannabis has therapeutic or health benefits
- Positively associate use of cannabis with dangerous or irresponsible activities (like consuming drugs that are illegal in California and Colorado) or those that require care or skill the influence of cannabis would impair (like driving a car)
- Show people under the influence of cannabis
- Give the impression that the product is an alcoholic beverage
Ads relating to cannabis should:
- Be clear that the ad is for cannabis or cannabis-adjacent products
- Display the license number of the business. We’ll also need advertisers to verify an active license because suspended or inactive cannabis sellers are legally prohibited from advertising. (If you’re advertising ancillary products that don’t require a license, then this bit is not relevant to you, and you can skip ahead if you like)
- Come with disclaimers: Only intended for consumers in CO and CA, not intended for minors. The advertiser is wholly responsible for accuracy and compliance with the law.
Hemp-derived CBD: Hemp-derived CBD products are not subject to the above cannabis advertising requirements. Instead, the following items apply to campaigns for hemp-derived CBD products:
- Ads can’t claim to prevent, diagnose, treat or cure serious diseases
- The product being advertised can’t be sold as a dietary supplement
- The product being advertised can’t be advertised as food where CBD has been added
Though the company, which had 327 million unique visitors at the beginning of 2021, was clear about a few rules: Ads need to be geo-targeted exclusively to people of legal consumption age, which is 21+ in both California and Colorado and approved in advance by Tumblr and sold only through the company’s direct sales team.
