Thanks to NORML members and supporters who pushed NORML’s proposed Super Bowl ad in an ongoing Intuit ad contest to the number one position. This morning, Intuit informed us that we have advanced to Round 2 of the contest. Entries who are deemed finalists from this round will be informed on October 29th.
We can put marijuana legalization before the masses at this year’s Super Bowl, but we still need your help. You can click here to vote for NORML’s entry (Note: You can vote once a day).
Click here to vote for NORML’s Super Bowl Ad!
“NORML would like to thank everyone who voted for our entry in Intuit’s contest. Millions of Americans now believe that it is time to legalize and regulate marijuana, winning this contest will help put that message in front of millions more,” stated NORML Communications Director Erik Altieri, “As a non-profit with a small staff and limited budget, we would greatly benefit from this contest just the same as any of the other small business entries. One would argue that NORML would benefit even more so than many, as our brand is looking to broadcast a truly national message and bring to light an issue that directly and adversely impacts countless thousands in our country every year. We hope Intuit will give NORML the same fair chance as any other entrant. Our victory would be a win for all parties involved: Intuit gets lots of media coverage and good will for themselves and their contest, FOX would bring in hundreds of thousands of new viewers who would otherwise not watch the Super Bowl, and NORML gets to take our message about the tragic failings of marijuana prohibition to the masses. Keep voting and we can make marijuana law reform the topic of discussion at watch parties across the nation during the big game.”
Our entry has caught the attention of mainstream media around the country. NORML staff have conducted dozens of media interviews in the last week about Intuit’s Super Bowl Small Business Ad Contest, to wit:
Including this humorous (and spot on) news video that is being shown nationwide on selective TV stations:
One of the organizations competing in the online vote, NORML, a national lobbying organization working towards the legalization of pot. Yep, we can see the first commercial for the legalization of marijuana during the Super Bowl.
How dare they right? The Super Bowl is an American institution, a family friendly event, brought to you the makers of beer and junk food and male enhancement pills. How could they let such an atrocity happen? Well, it’s quite simple hypocrites…alcohol induced deaths in 2010? More than 25,000 people, heart disease? Over 780,000. Erections lasting over 4 hours…the jury is still out. But pot? Zero, nada, zilch, zip. Ever.
It is time we stop wasting an estimated 10 billion dollars per year on the enforcement of marijuana laws. It’s time we stop putting people away for the recreational use of a natural product that has legitimate health benefits.”
I have voted every day since it was posted, I would love to see this happen!
Voting everyday and spreading the word. We can make this happen.
1 – set it as my homepage – so I vote everyday
2- personally, I think the commercial needs to be entirely redone.
The points it makes are good, but… it doesn’t have any really hard hitting emotion
the data is thrown out rather quickly-
whereas it should be a visual overlay
something people watching the game can actually catch
and it needs a catchy phrase/tune
something that will stick with the viewers
so that they are humming the tune and referencing the phrase after the game
something like
‘dut dut dut dut dutttt I’m lovin’ it’
(which is crap, but excellent advertisement)
I just voted and will spread the good word! 🙂
…no, nothing cornball..it appears tasteful and professional. exactly the way it autta be. just the facts.doesnt need to elude to the buzz either. needs the serious side!
I like that its straight and to the point
Let’s. Do. This. M. F. Ing. Thing!
I think it’s excellent: straight and to the point.
Looks promising.
I think that they need to focus more on the money, and with more visible signs (figures and sources on-screen) so the guys grabbing another beer can catch what is said.
It is the $$$ that is most likely to get the people on the couch to voice out in favor.
How sweet it would be if it won AND was allowed to be aired by Fox. I like the commercial however I do think it could be made a little better. Some more facts are needed. Most of us proponents know the facts however many of the potential viewers don’t and without the facts it will be meaningless to them. I realize there are only 30 seconds but it can be done.
I’m sure NORML will win but I don’t think the NFL will let Intuit air the commercial. At this point its all about getting lucky with this dang commercial.
The government prefers to go down swinging than admit to misleading the public with all those blatant lies on the white house website about marijuana.
@Kenny Smith: Yes, the government isn’t going to go down without a fight on this issue–partly because of all the pro-Drug War profiteer lobbying money they don’t want to lose, as well as the loss of face and the pain of having to admit to not only being wrong but being an abject liar.
And they know they’re losing this. They can keep swinging, but they know that their punches aren’t connecting anymore and all their own defenses are close to gone. And there is no way back for them. They’ll eventually back off, and then try and pretend it was their own idea the whole time.
enddrugtesting.blogspot.com
Page 5B of today’s USA Today has the article.
While the commercial advocating for the Superbowl Ad is great, I do hope there is eventually a shift away from the “junk-food munchies” image. Vaping sativa is just as likely to inspire someone to go jogging.
……
Legalization in Washington saw a lot of concern by cannabis consumers, in the creation of a system in which people would be arrested for driving with THC in their blood. Over time this will become a larger issue, as consumers believe the standard is unscientific and punitive. I’m not sure these issue will be addressed for quite some time, and likely not in a Super Bowl ad.
The elderly and the socially conservative have been holding back legalization. One concern is driving while impaired. The other is concern over “morality”. Do those groups even watch the Super Bowl?
…….
As Boomers shift into retirement or semi-retirement. Long-term hiking, camping and RVing on federal land will become part of their lifestyle. As well some will tour national parks. This can have a significant impact on the economy. Yet all of this vast property is under federal prohibition. Those currently doing these activities or planning on those activities in the future, may be a segment of the population to target for federal legalization. This group may not realize how harsh federal penalties are, and at what risk they are as a whole. For instance a patient’s need for medical cannabis is not recognized on Federal land. Yet as a whole, many in this group will likely need medical cannabis treatment at some point.
Hey thanks Norml I just voted again. I’m a Norml supporter, not a athletic supporter; and if I had an erection that lasted more than four hours I don’t know what I would do either be real happy, or kill myself!
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People,
Unlimited Votes: Vote then Change your IP address and vote again ! WE shall Prevail!
Splinter shin ferret !
My advice, don’t reference either party in an ad. The one on the voting site ends with “Yes…we..can”. That’s a great way to polarize people after you’ve convinced them that maybe marijuana reform is the right thing to do. This is an issue we can get all people on board with, regardless of party affiliation. There is too much division in this country now to waste an opportunity by bringing specific politicians into the mix.
800,000 federal workers, too much government!take a look at those who are still around filling their pockets. who has been shoving us around 2% ? this is our country! i seen the times, for those of you who don’t remember, or weren’t there. the war, the all the distrust that became. the platitudes of crumbs from above! such small gains, but as usual we take and grovel.
A commercial that speaks out against the inhumanity and savagery of the cannabis prohibition would have an exponentially greater impact than any other commercial, at any other time.
No matter what commercial is played during the superbowl, the usual, predictable fare is corporate advertisements to sell stuff, and usually the creative or funny commercials have nothing to with the products they’re selling, just the efforts of a troupe of comedians and marketers.
Any effort to help mitigate the years of propaganda, lies, misinformation, stereotypes, and the whole socially engineered stigma that unjustly, inappropriately surrounds cannabis and its use.
Cannabis has been treated like a skeleton in the closet, the elected officials (govt. servants) treat it like it’s a taboo subject.
Could there be better exposure than during the Super Bowl? Sadly, I don’t think there is, sad as that may be.
The video in the blog post shows a clip of Sanjay Gupta, who states what many have known, that cannabis provides many health benefits, and that certain conditions cannot be treated with pharma (if effective at all). One of cannabis’ central health benefits is neuroprotection. Cannabis protects nerves from damage after stroke, prevents seizures, can ameliorate the damage caused by excessive drinking (of alcohol drugs), and has been shown to act as a palliative and preventative treatment for Alzheimer’s.
Considering the effects of playing pro football, demonstrated to include multiple concussions and traumatic brain injury, notably culminated in a syndrome called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a sort of dementia that drastically reduces brain volume.
The NFL should be endorsing cannabis for their players and they should pay the bill for the commercial.
If it were up to me the commercial would be a no-nonsense criticism and call for severe sanctions within the federal government, for the transparent government corruption regarding cannabis and the rights of citizens. Besides that, there is a human right to cannabis hemp, cannabis medicine that is equal to the right to pain relief and medical care. It is a human right to consume and use the cannabis plant.
Personally, I don’t care for pro football or the commercials and how long and drawn out the Super Bowl is. But actually having a meaningful commercial like one that trashes all the free-riders in wasteful, ineffective drug-war agencies, exposing them for what they are, a mini-police state started by Nixon to serve invisible money powers, that if gone tomorrow, the world would be a better place.
An anti-prohibition commercial that is meaningful, during all that noise would be a first, it would actually make the Super Bowl less low-brow than it is.
@Brian, I agree that the money to be made is a major point but that’s not the main reason why it should be made legal. Prohibition of cannabis is so wrong on every level and the public is getting that now. Throwing out a lot of facts in a 30 second commercial I think would get lost on this audience, but by humanizing the issue: “I’m a doctor,” “a Representative,” “chemotherapy’, “I lost my job,” will stick, and remind everyone that cannabis prohibition effects all walks of life.
They took out the ability to search by the most popular group are you guys still in first place?
This is just another trap for big business to take contrpl of another aspect of your life, and your pocketbook – why do you think so much money is being dumped into this kind of advertising across the country? Why have Phillip Morris and other tobacco giants purchased enormous amounts of agricultural land across the country and are holding them fallow? They will be the main producers and profiteering groups if MJ is legalized- do not fool yourself – you will be transferring your spending money from one cartel the Mexican drug lords) to one big corporation just again to make your self stupid… think this through!
Ed Rosenthal had once mentioned the tomato model when this question has come up.
You can go to the grocery store today and buy tomatoes. These tomatoes have been selectively bred to be hard and pink, more or less flavorless, specifically in order to make shipping easier and reduce breakage.
The result? Tomatoes from the store taste nothing like good tomatoes, if you were to grow them yourself. And so many, many people grow their own tomatoes, and other crops because organic tastes better and gives you gratification, it’s not all just because the (commercial) alternative sucks.
Frankly, I don’t give a damn if cigarette degenerates try to sell cannabis. That’s still one step better than government controlling cannabis with an iron fist. Just like I don’t care if people buy every meal from McDonald’s, if tobacco decides to sell cannabis, what can anyone do if they want to sell besides never buying from them?
But so what if tobacco owns agricultural land? Ted Turner owns half the West US (you think I’m kidding).
Tobacco corps will no have have privileges like subsidized fertilization of tobacco by taxpayers, if they go into cannabis.
Tobacco degenerates are no better equipped to grow cannabis than anyone else. And if they began saturating cannabis cigarettes with additives to make them more addictive like they do with tobacco cigarettes, then they should be held liable for marketing their product as not 100% cannabis, period. The consumer in turn should avoid anything not 100% cannabis.
You never see “100% organic tobacco” because 1) it’s fertilized with radioactive chemicals paid for by tax payers, but besides that, 2) cannabis will have to be regulated like other organic crops, perhaps even medicines, considering that it IS a medicine, and well-accepted at that, and also an edible.
Buddha, who said Phillip Morris should be allowed to sell marijuana? They already turned tobacco from a weak poison into a death machine worse than heroin. Why should we let them even touch marijuana??? They’ll be, like crackheads, lacing shit into marijuana to make it addictive and poisonous.
In fact, why don’t we regulate tobacco growing and cigette manufacturing? In Germany, there is a beer purity law. Not here, and our beers tend to suck… Taking blood money via suing is a weak substitute for regulations. I never want to see the marijuana industry in such a crappy place.
Vote daily from different places. Work, coffee shop, home. Anyplace that gives you access to a different network counts as a new vote.
it is a huge concern when cannabis is grown by big buisness…you know they will no doubt invite monsanto to supply seeds, tobacco companies, seeins that they have real estate to grow massive quanities and the knowledge to sneak all sorts of shit in it to stretch it out, or alter it according to fed regulations will make it death of a once natural plant much like tobacco. how can we make sure pure cannabis is not genenticly destroyed?….
When I think about the very serious issue of cannabis prohibition and the necessity of ending what a government created social problem, a sign and symptom of sick, totalitarian-led buracracy where elected officials are mistakenly called “leaders.”
As cannabis prohibition is on its way into obscurity, becoming an historical account, a cautionary tale, of the worst mistakes that can be made in public policy. Grievous injustices continue to be committed, paired with a pretend concern, in order to maintain the transparent corruption, human rights violations, terrorist harassment of free citizenry.
The only imaginable consolation is that cannabis prohibition will be forever remembered in world history as a textbook illustration of corruption and stupidity, the mark of a society that allows injustice with such flippant and dishonest, malicious authoritarianism, is collapsing on itself slowly because of greed and ignorance.
People have been conditioned to see this sort of paternalism and despotism through the distorted lenses of false claims and misinformation from people in positions of authority they trusted, like teachers and desk-jockey cops, commercials constantly preaching to parents that its their responsibility to “talk to [your] kids about drugs.”
That means, pass on the ignorance we’ve inculcated into your perception of reality about “drugs” which are a specific set of substances that will “ruin your life” force you to be a homeless “junkie,” etc etc. In this pretend reality, “drugs” are different from alcohol, tobacco, pharma, otc, inhalants, evidenced by the common phrase “drugs and alcohol.” Um, the phrase is redundant, like saying “drugs and crack.” When they say “talk to you kids about drugs” they are saying “talk about cannabis as if it is 1/10000th as bad as toxic alkaloid drugs like coke, meth, pharma.”
It probably is a good idea for parents to talk about drugs, specifically that the “drugs” refer to only specific substances that may not be any more dangerous than taking a prescribed drug by instruction. The drug war is proof that portions of the bureacracy are like tumors that need to be excised. Tell them the CSA drug war was one more pebble within Nixon’s mosaic legacy of degeneracy and shame.
The fabrication of drug schedules is proof that Nixon wasn’t just stupid, and ignorant pig, or had awful judgment, but that he was a puppet with the primary orders of very wealthy American Nazis (source: the documentary Dark Legacy) to create the CSA drug war, run on the basis of an unscientific, unfounded scheduling scheme that is completely arbitrary, and yet to commit total loyalty to defending the lie of drug schedules and the made-up definitions for each scheduling category. They parrot “cannabis has no medical use” when that claim is a dead giveaway to being eith a liar or ignorant. But the medical evidence so overwhelmingly contradicts drug war lies, that even the liars KNOW they are lying, it’s part of the czar job description.
Anyway, I don’t see it as any concern that big business grow cannabis. Everyone has that right. But buying it from them with cas money is just stupidity. Comparing possible outcomes from legalization evil tobacco’s inevitable (predicted) takeover of the market of cannabis.
First, anyone can grow cannabis. There is no monolithic corporate monster that would destroy growing competition and upstarts in the tobacco business and upstarts like tobacco did. Tobacco would have about as good a chance of success with cannabis as they would trying to start selling beer. Not gonna happen.
People bought cancer sticks (they still do) because frankly, the notion of growing tobacco just for the nicotine becomes silly if the same thing is easily purchased, even if the exchange for the nicotine within tobacco, is added arsenic, lead-210, nitrites, and hundreds of other known carcinogens.
Second, what Monsanto did with GMO of soybeans and corn, so that they can survive the Monsanto herbicide Roundup(TM), while weeds and other plants die. This pathetically selfish plan allowed them to patent corn and soybeans under specious patent rules. They forced soybean farmers to buy their GMO seed (every year) or face no govt subsidy support, or maybe threats of physical harm (you never know with Monsatan). Source: film “King Corn”
That GMO monoculture of soybeans, that basically brought an end to the American soybean farmer, cannot happen with cannabis. They will never control all the seed stock. And they won’t be in the unfair position to manipulate career farmers who were dependent on government subsidy to keep up the farm, just struggling to get by to keep their homes and livelihood.
The lack of genetic diversity will likely end in extinction of their soybean Frankenstein when the right conditions (predatory bugs, drought, disease) occur. This cannot happen with cannabis. And karma will hopefully end Monsanto itself.
Very unlike the case with cannabis, there are not few and struggling soybean farmers who could be easily coerced, forced to obey Monsatan’s demands. Legalization would arguably help prevent thugs like Monsanto from using govt power to enforce their corrupt business model. First, cannabis should be taken out of the absolute control enforced by failed idiotic agencies, who should also pay back all the wasted money from the drug war. If only they had a legitimate way to earn the money back. How about getting real jobs that don’t require lying, theft, and killing?
By putting cannabis back in the public domain, no longer the prisoner of Inquisition-style stupidity, Monsanto would not have any significant impact on cannabis genetics, thankfully, because humans have carried the plant from Asia to every part of the earth.
I would say the “tobacco will take over” argument is counterproductive besides being speculation. It implies that legalization has some fault that requires reconsideration because the monsters who produce tobacco cigarettes might start growing.
If cannabis seedbanks existing now have not been destroyed, despite fascist-style oppression which is totally unfounded, then legalization would make extinction even less likely.
Has this been updated? I know voting is closed now but I voted as much as I could in the passed couple weeks. Hoping it made it passed round 2!
marijuana use has helped to heal from suicidal major depression, kept me alive to see 56