The CBS network has rejected a potential Super Bowl ad from Acreage Holdings that would have expounded on the benefits of medical cannabis, Bloomberg reports.
Acreage Holdings — a multi-state cannabis corporation which includes several former lawmakers, including former Speaker of the House John Boehner, on the company’s board of directors — said the company’s proposed Super Bowl ad would have explained the plant’s effectiveness for many conditions and called for legalizing medical cannabis. The ad would have portrayed two individuals who have reached relief through cannabis: a child with epilepsy and a U.S. combat veteran.
According to Acreage Holdings President George Allen, the advertisement aimed to “create an advocacy campaign for constituents who are being lost in the dialogue.”
CBS nixed the ad, however, and did not immediately respond to inquiries about the incident.
The Super Bowl is usually the most-watched network television event of the year. Last year, reports indicated that a 30-second advertising slot cost about $5 million. For this reason, many viewers have started anticipating the ads in between plays, as they are usually of notably higher-production than average network television advertisements.
“It’s hard to compete with the amount of attention something gets when it airs during the Super Bowl,” Allen said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Notably, there is increasing pressure on the NFL to allow its players to access medical cannabis as a potential replacement for opiate painkillers; the organization, however, has yet to budge on the issue.
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