Student presentation exploring "marijuana advertising and professional sports"

As long-time readers know, students in my Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform seminar "take over" the second half of my class through presentations on the research topics of their choice. Before their presentations, students are expected to provide in this space some background on their topic and links to some readings or relevant materials. The first of our presentations taking place this week will focus on professional sports and advertising, and here is how my student has described her topic along with background readings she has provided for her classmates (and the rest of us):

For decades, the NFL and other leagues amongst the Big Four professional sport leagues have embraced alcohol, specifically beer, in league and team sponsorships and advertisements. The NFL even has Bud Light as its “Official Beer of the NFL.” Before that, it was tobacco companies who provided the professional sport leagues with millions of dollars in advertising revenue. While tobacco faded out of the sport scene, alcohol emerged and has since held a strong presence despite policymakers’ concerns about promoting and connecting a harmful substance to athletic achievement, on a national stage reaching children.

The professional sport leagues have shied away from letting players use marijuana for any purpose despite its legality in state marketplaces. This has long been a fight for the leagues’ athletes, who want and should be able to have access to cannabis for pain management. But it then comes as no surprise that the leagues have also prevented cannabis advertising from infiltrating the leagues, their teams, and players.

It is with this background, as well as prior research in players’ use of cannabis (stay tuned for its posting to the DEPC Student Paper Series), that I turned to explore another potential connection between marijuana and professional sports — this time through advertising.

This paper and presentation starts out by discussing the long history of alcohol and tobacco advertising in professional sports. It then turns to current federal and state restrictions on marijuana advertising, looking to the legal limitations that leagues must abide by. To make it easier to digest, this section makes connections to existing alcohol and tobacco advertising laws. Subsequently, this paper looks to the current league policies for marijuana advertising, highlighting the NFL’s approach. Finally, this paper looks to the future of marijuana advertising, it’s implications on the sport industry, and makes recommendations for cannabis advertising in professional sports.

For the most part, there are still a lot of unanswered questions that sport industry professionals will have to deal with. While the law provides some guidelines and can help predict league behavior, there are a lot of opportunities available for both leagues, teams, and athletes in this space. Those options are explored in this paper and presentation.

Background Resources:

Tobacco and Alcohol

• "Sponsorship of Sport by Tobacco and Alcohol Companies: A Review of the Issues"
• "Alcohol Sponsorships And Athlete Endorsements In Sports"

Cannabis Advertising

• "Paid Cannabis Advertising: What’s Allowed, and What’s Not"

Cannabis and Sport Leagues

• "Is Now the Time for Sports Leagues to Embrace Sponsorship from Cannabis Brands?"
• "The Super Bowl won’t be lit: no cannabis ads allowed"