Coca-Cola is working to infuse cannabis extract into its drinks for medicinal benefits. Heineken, meanwhile, has a craft beer brewed with the toxic ingredient that induces a high.

To provide background for those of you who don’t smoke pot, there are two main ingredients in cannabis (or marijuana): CBD and THC. The former doesn’t get you high, instead providing all the benefits such as reducing pain and inflammation. It’s the reason many jurisdictions are legalizing marijuana now or considering.

THC, on the other hand, is the compound that gets you high and hallucinating. It’s the reason marijuana is illegal in the first place.

In other words, if you’re a pothead, THC is why you smoke pot; CBD is the reason you tell others why you smoke pot.

Many beverage companies, including Coca-Cola, are trying to get into the wellness drinks market believed to be worth tens of billions of dollars, by infusing the healthily beneficial CBD into their drinks. It is still mostly a preparation stance at this point, though, since marijuana is not yet legalized at federal level in the U.S., the main target market.

On the other hand, Heineken has a craft beer brand, Lagunitas, that has been infusing THC into its drinks and selling them in California. Legally, of course, since the state allows marijuana.

I see an interesting parable in this. It reminds me of a few things simultaneously.

1. Irvins Salted Egg

If you’re marketing on a positive benefit (e.g. “it’s good for your health!”), you’d better have the authority behind you. And that tends to require WAITING for the authority to come on board. But if you’re marketing on a ‘negative’ benefit, your hands are ‘tied’ and you have to disclose and disclaim. Like “Warning: This WILL Get You High!”

Kinda like Irvins Salted Egg snacks that warn on the label: “Dangerously Addictive!” Good stuff.

2. Breakthrough Copywriting

The book says:

You want to make an emotionally compelling case… The one response you don’t want to get is, “Interesting idea. That’s really good copy. You write well.” The response you want to get is either “We’re going to get one of those,” or “You can’t do that!” You want to get them one way or the other. You want to get a negative reaction from the people your offer is not right for, and a positive reaction from the people who it is right for. That is what an emotionally compelling case does.

It certainly feels like Heineken’s approach to marijuana-infused drinks invokes a lot of “We’re gonna get one of those” and “You can’t do that!”

3. Thinking in Bets

Another book. This one, poker champion turned management consultant Annie Duke preaches exactly what the title says. Most things in real-life decision-making hinges upon certain future. And the future is always uncertain. When every decision is viewed as a bet, oftentimes the smart move is to not engage in one. In this example, will the health benefits be enough to warrant a legal endorsement? Maybe, eventually. But why not remove the dependency altogether and promote the health risk?

So where’s the theme Productivity, Creativity, and Expression in this?

For one thing, this post isn’t necessarily about – or not about – getting creative from smoking pot; I don’t make judgment! But it certainly has something to do with productivity in making decisions in bets, because it tends to make you avoid taking sides. Since eventualities take time to unfold, taking sides can paralyze you in the mean time – like Coca-Cola and other brands do currently. If you take an option that removes the bet, then you don’t have to wait, and can act now. Heineken’s Lagunitas has been able to sell its cannabis-infused products because it chose a positioning that doesn’t depend on the legality of adding CBD to your drinks.

There’s also a lot to do with expression. Effective expression is where some folks will be necessarily alienated, so that the target audience feels exclusive. If you write for everyone, you write for no one. If you speak to everyone, no one hears. If you try to please everyone, no one is pleased.
Instead, pick someone. Address them at the expense of alienating everyone else.

That’s expression that will get effects.

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Also published on Medium.