Now that we are a few months into Twitter allowing cannabis advertisements on their site, we have a better grasp at what is and isn’t allowed for the popular social media website. Just a few months ago it was announced that cannabis advertising would be allowed on the site. The problem though was that the regulations around the ads were very vague. Some were led to believe that cannabis could be shown on screen to users who were of age, others were led to believe that it was open reign on cannabis ads. The reality though was that there were strict rules advertisers had to follow to get their advertisements in front of potential customers.
This strict format led to many companies diverting large amounts of resources to creating cannabis ads for the site, only to be turned down by the Twitter advertising team. But as of recently, Twitter has adapted their policies. Now, twitter is letting cannabis agencies post pictures of their products directly. Many news agencies are calling this a “Charm Offensive”, allowing companies to feature cannabis within packaging. Prior to this, a large majority of the ads that were approved would only allow a link to be posted to their cannabis sites.
This comes a few months after some of Twitter’s largest advertising customers chose to leave the site due to the change in leadership and mission. Large corporations chose to spend their advertising budget on other sites, directly impacting the income of the mega corporation. Many believe that this expansion of the cannabis ad policy is a direct result of some of these larger advertisers leaving.
Although Twitter may be losing money from some large advertisers, cannabis businesses are quite happy they are loosening their policies. “A lot of people [in the cannabis business community] were citing the actual policy that Twitter published, and saying, ‘You really can’t advertise anything here,’” said Adam Terry, chief executive and co-founder of Cantrip Seltzer, a hemp and cannabis-infused beverage company.
“It gets really complicated to advertise if you can’t actually mention that you sell something,” Mr. Terry said about the old format of cannabis advertising.
In the future experts expect Twitter to loosen their regulations even further, allowing more cannabis to be featured on screen. Time will tell if Elon and his social media company will open up.
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