Brands roll with the "holidays" of the stoner as the legalization of the pot grows

For decades, Potheads celebrated its love of marijuana on April 20, but the celebration of the counter-culture that once consisted of getting screwed now is so dominant that corporate America is beginning to adhere to it.

No, Hallmark still has no card to mark "420". But many other multi-billion dollar businesses in the cannabis industry use April 20 or 4 to broadcast marketing messages and social media aimed at connecting consumers to this booming market.

On Saturday, Lyft is offering a $ 4.20 one-way credit to Colorado and some cities in the United States and Canada. Carl's Jr. uses a Denver restaurant to market a hamburger infused with CBD, a non-intoxicant molecule found in cannabis and which, in the opinion of many, is beneficial to health.

On 420 last year, Totino's, a frozen pizza maker, tweeted the picture of a microwave oven and oven with the following message: "To be honest, pizza buns are better when they are cooked."

"I think brands that badociate with cannabis make that contact at the top, in other words, they're simply considered colder by badociation," said Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist at The Golden Gate University. "As the pot becomes more legal, more discussed, more interesting for people, more widely used, the 420 also becomes more common."

The normalization of marijuana has snowballed since 2012, when Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize the use for recreational purposes. Eight others followed, including California, Oregon and Michigan. Marijuana for medical purposes is legal in two-thirds of states, Utah and Oklahoma with conservative tendencies as recent additions.

Meanwhile, the CBD market has exploded. CBD oil is found in sweets, coffee and other foods, drinks and dietary supplements, as well as in perfumes, lotions, creams and soap. Proponents say CBD helps relieve pain, anxiety and inflammation, although limited scientific research supports these claims.

In the United States, retail sales of cannabis products jumped to $ 10.5 billion last year, a three-fold increase from 2017, according to data from the Arcview group, a market research firm and investment in cannabis. Figures do not include retail sales of CBD products derived from hemp.

Ben & Jerry's was one of the first major brands to establish a connection with marijuana cultivation through marketing. The Vermont-based ice cream company presents Cherry Garcia and Phish Food, honoring Jerry Garcia, a member of the Grateful Dead Dead, and the Phish Group. Both groups are favorites of the crowd that smokes marijuana.

To mark 420 in recent years, the ice cream sandwiches inspired by the taco and burrito have been launched by Ben & Jerry's. This year, the company partnered with a Cannabis retailer in the San Francisco Bay Area to offer customers who place delivery orders on Fridays and Saturdays a complimentary pint of Half Baked biscuits and fudge brownie.

"We have a lot of fun, we never show ourselves openly, but we are really playing at the moment 420," said Jay Curley, Global Head of Integrated Marketing for the company.