Taking a cue from Rolling Stone's infamous Perception/Reality ad, a group calling itself Grass Is Not Greener placed a full-page anti-marijuana ad (see below) in the New York Times on Aug. 2
In 1987, Rolling Stone was widely criticized for its two-page spread in Ad Age and other trade mags showing a roach clip ("perception") on the left page and a money clip ("reality") on the right page.
"There was a perception in the ad marketplace that the magazine’s readers were essentially 1.4 million aging hippies with no significant discretionary income to spend on their products," says Stu Zakim, who did publicity for Rolling Stone at the time. "The campaign successfully repositioned the magazine"
In the Grass Is Not Greener ad, a hippie looking dude's head ("perception") is superimposed on the body of a man wearing a business suit ("reality"). The point is marijuana legalization is big business and no longer the domain of hippie stoners. "The legalization of marijuana means ushering in an entirely new group of corporations whose primary source of revenue is a highly habit-forming product," the text reads.
GrassIsNotGreener.com "is an affiliate of Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), a nonpartisan alliance of lawmakers, scientists and other concerned citizens, co-founded by former Congressman Patrick Kennedy," the site explains. A scroll of so-called facts includes scare tactics such as, "Marijuana use while driving makes you twice as likely to be involved in a crash." SAM's primary goal is to warn citizens of the coming of "Big Marijuana," which is supposed to be analogous to Big Pharma and Big Tobacco.
The ad is supported by SAM, American Society of Addiction Medicine, National Association of Drug Professionals, National Families in Action and Parents Opposed to Pot.
"We were greatly dismayed last week when the New York Times decided to crusade in favor of marijuana legalization," the site explains in a blog post. "We thought a paper like the Times would have done more homework on the issue… We know that we don't want another tobacco-like industry that will stop at nothing to profit from higher addiction rates. We hope this debate sparks a national debate on the subject. of marijuana legalization."
