Twitter has announced that it will be loosening its advertising policies to allow cannabis companies to promote their brands on social media platform. This makes Twitter the first major social media platform to welcome cannabis ads within the United States.
The new policy change will enable companies that sell cannabis products to advertise their businesses. However, there are some restrictions on what can appear in advertisements. Ads cannot directly “promote or offer the sale of cannabis” except for certain CBD products. Additionally, there are age and location-related restrictions that limit who can be targeted with cannabis-related ads.
This policy update comes as many advertisers have either fled the platform or significantly reduced how much they are spending on it. By opening up to cannabis companies, which until now have had extremely limited options to reach people on social media platforms, Twitter has the opportunity to bring in a fresh set of advertisers.
In its announcement, Twitter suggested that cannabis companies could reach a large audience on the platform. The company noted that cannabis-related conversation “is larger than the conversation around topics such as pets, cooking, and golf, as well as food and beverage categories including fast food, coffee, and liquor.”
The move is the latest way that Twitter has shaken up its rules under Elon Musk’s leadership in order to allow content that was once barred. With this policy change, cannabis companies will be able to use Twitter as a platform to increase their visibility and reach a wider audience. It will be interesting to see how this move affects the landscape of cannabis advertising, and whether other social media platforms will follow suit.
