Cannabis in Pop Culture: SNL’s I’m a Weed Gummy skit — hit or miss for the industry?

Don’t get me wrong. I loved SNL’s I’m a Weed Gummy skit. Pete Davidson can do no wrong in my book. Add Aidy Bryant and make fun of someone accidentally eating weed gummies like they were candy while on a job like hostage negotiations — I’m all for it.

However, after laughing for a bit, my marketing instincts kicked in. Lately I’ve been exploring a possible pivot of my marketing communications skills to the growing cannabis industry. It’s a product I believe can help people in ways they aren’t even aware of yet.

My experience in the industry so far is scant but a recent interaction with a Cannabis retail client, whose desired brand positioning was to be a neighborhood place that is welcoming and open to new and returning consumers, stuck out in my mind.

Cannabis can be intimidating to those who don’t have any experience with it and are only seeing it through the eyes of pop culture. As for the SNL example from this past weekend, cannabis does not make you hallucinate and it’s doesn’t make you pass out out of nowhere. Depending upon the type of consumption and strain, it could make you silly, a little forgetful, and/or eventually sleepy.

The days of getting a bag of random weed or eating brownies that your buddy made are in the past. Regulations protect new consumers from overdoing it and your local Budtenders are knowledgable guides that will always take your first time into consideration.

It’s my job as a marketer to not make Cannabis a scary and exaggerated pop culture references like singing weed gummies and a wacked-out Marge Simpson is taking us back to Reefer Madness Days.

Agree? Disagree? What are your thoughts?