Tumblr Green Lights CBD Ads Nationwide And Cannabis Ads In California And Colorado 'For Now'

Tumblr, the popular Gen Z-attractive platform took another step into the world of weed by inviting CBD businesses to advertise on its network nationwide and cannabis companies in California and Colorado. 

What happened? What are the rules? 

This week, Tumblr became one of the first large social media platforms to allow cannabis advertising when it updated its advertising policies that now permit CBD ad 

campaigns to run nationwide and cannabis ads to run only in California and Colorado, for now.

Though the company, which had 327 million unique visitors at the beginning of 2021, was clear about a few rules: Cannabis ads need to be geo-targeted exclusively to people of legal consumption age, which is 21+ in both California and Colorado, approved in advance by Tumblr and sold only through the company’s direct sales team.

In addition, advertisers need to verify they have an active license revealing its number and agree that each company is exclusively responsible for the accuracy of its ads, giveaways are not permitted and ads cannot be designed to attract children or promote “unsafe or irresponsible use of cannabis” nor display anyone under the influence of marijuana. 

Why these new policies don’t apply in other states with legal cannabis markets? 

Tumblr decided to first test the new policies of covering cannabis in California and Colorado, and depending on the results, the company may opt to expand to other states. Though Tumblr pointed out to Benzinga that CBD ads can be seen on its site in all fifty states.

Previous Cannabis-related Activities - Cannabis Industry Blog 

Earlier this year, Tumblr partnered with cannabis lifestyle brand Civilized Worldwide Inc. to create and launch the network’s first cannabis industry blog. The idea behind the blog was to create a “culturally accurate, informative and entertaining cannabis experience for the Tumblr community.”

The cannabis.tumblr.com blog went live at the beginning of September, becoming the new place for marijuana, hemp and CBD industries on Tumblr.

According to a 2020 analysis done by GWI Global, Tumblr’s audience accounted for 21% of CBD sales in the U.S. 

Photo: Courtesy of Merakist on Unsplash