They’re all waiting… waiting for you. The growers, the sellers, the bakers, and the vaping-stick makers—everyone involved in the cannabis industry is salivating over the opportunity to legally sell you their wares, and wherever there’s money to be made, there’s also guaranteed to be… marketers.
In its brief history, the legal recreational cannabis industry has proven itself, if nothing else, to be in dire need of a makeover. From the harsh lights and artlessly postered walls of many establishments, to the silly names and basement-dwelling sensibilities that so often inform product designs, there is much untapped potential for the emerging green industry to appeal to the finer tastes of the boutique-shopping set.
Trust: They’re working on it. Everyone wants a piece of the expected economic windfall, and image-makers are no exception. Be prepared, then, for newfangled weed products to deploy the same tactics that sell you everything else in your life. And if the perennial key to the consumer’s heart is sex, then the handmaiden to sexy marketing is vanity. Staggering profit numbers raked in by the health and beauty industry make plain that this will be an avenue worth pursuing.
It might be an uphill battle, though. Stereotypical side effects of getting high on cannabis include overeating, a lack of motivation for physical activity, and “still in your bathrobe at 10 pm” levels of dishevelment. “Try smoking more weed” was no one’s answer, ever, to a query about keeping one’s weight down, but make no mistake that there are efforts underway to change that.
- ARTWORK BY VINNIE NEUBERG ARTWORK BY VINNIE NEUBERG
Frankly, despite this tiresome trope popping up again and again, I have very rarely met an overweight or morbidly obese pot smoker. On the other hand you can’t walk into a Walmart without tripping over gargantuan balls of flab with cases of Old Milwaukee in their scooters.