MJBiz - August 2023 - 40

Party on, Weed
E
arly 1980s soul revival Chicagostyle.
Smoking
blunts with friends in
the late 1980s.
The SoCal street sound and culture of
the early 1990s.
Cannabis companies nationwide
are infusing a heavy dose of nostalgia
in their products and building brands
based on fond memories, good times
and the soundtracks to some of our
formative years.
Resurrecting defunct record labels,
rock-band encores and cult-classic
throwbacks are all part of the remix.
Other forms of entertainment are
finding wild success and new audiences
with blasts from the past, evident at the
box office and streaming services.
" Top Gun: Maverick, " a near carbon
copy of the original, was nominated for
five Academy Awards, including Best
Picture after grossing nearly $1.5 billion.
Metallica's 1986 masterpiece, " Master
of Puppets, " the title track of the band's
third album, climbed into Spotify's Top
10 most-played songs last year after
playing a key element in the popular
Netflix series " Stranger Things, " which
40 August 2023 | MJBizMagazine
introduced throngs of younger listeners
to the metal icons.
The comedy duo Steve Martin and
Martin Short, who first paired up in
the 1986 movie " Three Amigos! " have
hit streaming gold on Hulu's " Only
Murders in the Building, " joining their
big-screen contemporaries finding new
life in the digital era, including another
comeback story for the Karate Kid in
Netflix's " Cobra Kai. "
Nostalgia not only evokes positive
memories of belonging and coming
of age, research has shown it affects
consumer behavior and increases
purchases.
" We really want to be able to deliver
that '90s feel of having a good time and
not necessarily breaking the bank, " said
Tiffany Chin, head of strategy for Death
Row Cannabis, one of rapper Snoop
Dogg's first ventures since acquiring
the defunct label about two years ago.
The ubiquitous entertainer is aiming
to revitalize Death Row Records with
a line of cannabis products and new
artists.
The label, founded in 1991 by Dr.
Dre, Suge Knight, The D.O.C. and Dick
Griffey, helped skyrocket Snoop, Tupac
and other gangsta rappers to superstardom
while exporting West Coast
hip-hop worldwide.
Similarly, entrepreneurs who are
fans of the 1981 animated stoner flick
" Heavy Metal " -and the magazine
that gave it life-are reanimating the
Heavy Metal brand with a new line of
marijuana products commemorating
the fusion of sci-fi, fantasy and horror.
And, in a nod to American ska punk
band Sublime, the newly established
brand Reefers by Sublime is asking
Southern California consumers to
smoke two joints to make them feel all
right.
The name of the brand and inaugural
product lineup are ripped from " Smoke
Two Joints " -from Sublime's 1992 debut
album, " 40 oz. to Freedom " -a cover
that takes a swipe at the absurdity of
the Reefer Madness era.
" Sublime was not a big corporate
band, " explains Rob Taft, the owner
of Orange County-based 420 Central,
a marijuana store, and The Healing
Plant, a cannabis product manufacturer
that struck a licensing deal with
MJBiz - August 2023

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