Cannabis companies are the leading sponsors of Colorado highways.
But their motivations are about as altruistic as their products.
More than 50 marijuana dispensaries are responsible for cleanup on two-thirds of state roads, according to The Denver Post, which reported on a loophole in Colorado’s strict limits on advertising.
By adopting a highway, firms can easily (and legally) splash their name and logo across busy roads, ensuring their brand is seen by hundreds of thousands of drivers every day.
Rules governing how and where cannabis companies can advertise “are famously strict,” the Post said.
In an effort to prevent sending messages to minors, state regulators prohibit plugs on TV, radio, in print, and on social media.
You can’t always count on someone Googling the right set of keywords to direct them to your site. So enterprising merchants instead began sponsoring highways instead.
Clean Colorado signs with the details of local dispensaries and growers can be seen on a majority of the state’s major highways, the Denver Post explained. Most are strategically placed near the exit for their corresponding business.
Though “not intended to be an advertising medium,” the Colorado Department of Transportation said, these placards—less than an ad, but more than nothing—have become a clever workaround.
“They’re a different kind of signage on the side of the road,” Harsha Gangadharbatla, associate professor of advertising, public relations, and media design at University of Colorado Butler, told the Post.
“They tend to stick out a little bit more than billboards,” he continued. “Consumers do pay a little bit more attention to anything that’s novel or different from the formats they’re used to.”
They also shine a positive light on marijuana stores, suggesting that the money made from cannabis sales is put to something good—”like keeping up roads and transportation that everyone uses,” Gangadharbatla said.
Unlike their sister service Adopt a Highway (which enlists volunteers to pick up litter twice a year), Sponsor a Highway charges a fee for the cost of a cleanup crew.
Prices vary by roadway and how frequently they are used.
More on Geek.com:
- Town Buys Weird Odor Device to Sniff Out Stinky Marijuana Plants
- You’ll Have to Travel to Canada for Weed Beer
- People Got High on Cannabis at Funerals 2,500 Years Ago
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