NFL Says No To CBD And Cannabis Ads For The Super Bowl

Companies in the crypto and sports betting worlds will have no problem placing their message in front of an estimated 100 million viewers when Sunday’s NFL Super Bowl LVI between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals kicks off. For a cool $5.5 million per 30-second commercial, brands from just about any of America’s consumer industries — regulated or unregulated — can say just about anything they want.

Super Bowl ads are known for bringing out the most creative sides of marketers, resulting in spots that are entertaining, heartfelt, comical and at times even obscene.

But one emerging U.S. industry, worth $25 billion, wasn’t invited to Sunday’s party. Cannabis and CBD falls under a “restricted” category the league has for certain industries and products, an NFL spokesman said. Cannabis, though legal in some form in 37 states, is still considered a Schedule I narcotic by the U.S. government with “no recognized medical value.” Hemp was made legal in the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill, but sales of CBD-products are technically still in a regulatory gray area.

So while you’ll see plenty of ads for beer, liquor, unproven diet products, R-rated movies, gambling and speculative digital currencies, there won’t be any ads for one of the fasting growing forms of natural medicine, credited with improving the lives of millions of Americans.

NFL VP of Communications Alex Riethmiller said cannabis and CBD have yet to be allowed as ads for any NFL games, but that such ads in the future are not out of the question.

The league’s restrictions for ads can be incredibly inconsistent. Ads for antidepressants and prescription birth control pills have been allowed in past Super Bowls, but ads for condoms have been banned.

Among cannabis companies that have tried to advertise in “The Big Game,” but were rejected include Acreage Holdings, which attempted in 2019 to get a 60-second spot about medical marijuana and patients on TV during Super Bowl LIII. Juanjo Feijoo, COO of California-based Weedmaps, told The Verge that a company ad designed for this year’s Super Bowl was also rejected by the NFL. Some cannabis and CBD companies have instead resulted to publishing their ads on YouTube and their own company websites.