The New York Times ran a cannabis ad on Sunday for Leafly, a new app that helps users research different strains of marijuana, as well as dispensaries that sell the drug,
NBC News reported.
The new ad came just a week after the Times'
editorial board jumped on the pot bandwagon, declaring, "The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana." It also appeared one day after Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group advocating against legalization, ran its own ad repudiating the editorial.
According to AdAge.com, Leafly likely paid around $180,000 for the ad.
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"Leafly claims it's the first 'cannabis company' to run a full-page ad in the Times, although ads for advocacy groups such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, and the Drug Policy Alliance have appeared in the paper," wrote the advertising industry publication.
The ad itself, which Leafly tweeted out over the weekend, aims to make marijuana use look mainstream, congratulate New York state on the passage of its "Compassionate Care" law that legalizes medical marijuana, and, of course, advertise the product.
"One of the ways you knock down the Berlin Wall of Prohibition is by talking about cannabis in a mainstream way," Leafly Chief Executive Brendan Kennedy
told The Wall Street Journal. "We're continuing to look at other mainstream publications that would be open to this type of advertising."
New York Times spokeswoman Linda Zebian said that the ad was in compliance with its policies. "We accept ads for products and services that are legal and if the ad has met our acceptability standards. Each ad is evaluated on its own merit," she said.
Leafly was founded in 2010, and reports an average of 4 million monthly visitors to its website and smartphone app.
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