Cheech & Chong Spend Up to $500K Per Month to Hawk Gummies on Twitter

If it seems like ads for Cheech amd Chong’s cannabis gummies have been following you, you aren’t having a paranoia spell.

Cheech & Chong’s Global Holding, the parent company behind the pot-loving comedy team’s THC-laced candies, is spending between $250,000 and $500,000 a month for gummy ads on Twitter, its chief executive, Jonathan Black, told The Wall Street Journal.

There’s only about 20 advertisers spending more than $500,000 a month on Elon Musk’s social media platform, including Chevron, Apple and Amazon, the report said, citing data from Sensor Tower. That puts the “Up in Smoke” team’s company near the top tier for the platform’s advertisers following a mass exodus after Musk bought the platform, one of the reasons that Cheech and Chong ads seem to be lighting up so many feeds.

The platform that’s in in the midst of rebranding itself “X” said in February it would start allowing cannabis ads in states where weed is legal. That list has reached 23 states, along with Washington D.C. and several US territories, according to NORML. Marijuana is still outlawed on the federal level.

X owner Elon Musk is himself known to partake of a joint or two.

Cheech & Chong’s company is using Twitter/X data to target a specific demographic, The Journal reported, including uses over age 35 who follow accounts that follow the two “Still Smokin” stars’ individual accounts or the company’s account.

Chong, 85, is a more active user of the platform than Marin, 77. Both follow an eclectic mix of organizations that work to loosen marijuana laws and related publications Magazine, multiple comedians and others in the entertainment industry and a series of arts and culture organizations.

Searching for mentions of cannabis on the platform is something else that will likely serve up ads for the gummies, Black said.

“We aren’t controlling how they are being placed,” he said. “That’s the platform, not us.”

It also appears that users who follow accounts related to bands like The Grateful Dead and Phish are targeted.

Placing an order is another way to get your feed filled with related ads.

“I ordered some of those Cheech and Chong gummies, and now my feed is nothing but weed ads, instead of bizarre useless cleaning products and bras for small boobs,” posted one user Tuesday morning. “and I am not mad abt it.”

Black said the company spends about $10 million a year on advertising across multiple platforms and has nearly $30 million in annual revenue.

“What you gotta do is get their attention, and once you got their attention, now you can give them some information that is going to astound them somehow, make them laugh or something,” Chong told The Journal in a Zoom interview during which he was snacking on his gummies. “Whatever we are doing, it works.”

If it seems like ads for Cheech amd Chong’s cannabis gummies have been following you, you aren’t having a paranoia spell.

Cheech & Chong’s Global Holding, the parent company behind the pot-loving comedy team’s THC-laced candies, is spending between $250,000 and $500,000 a month for gummy ads on Twitter, its chief executive, Jonathan Black, told The Wall Street Journal.

There’s only about 20 advertisers spending more than $500,000 a month on Elon Musk’s social media platform, including Chevron, Apple and Amazon, the report said, citing data from Sensor Tower. That puts the “Up in Smoke” team’s company near the top tier for the platform’s advertisers following a mass exodus after Musk bought the platform, one of the reasons that Cheech and Chong ads seem to be lighting up so many feeds.

The platform that’s in in the midst of rebranding itself “X” said in February it would start allowing cannabis ads in states where weed is legal. That list has reached 23 states, along with Washington D.C. and several US territories, according to NORML. Marijuana is still outlawed on the federal level.

X owner Elon Musk is himself known to partake of a joint or two.

Cheech & Chong’s company is using Twitter/X data to target a specific demographic, The Journal reported, including uses over age 35 who follow accounts that follow the two “Still Smokin” stars’ individual accounts or the company’s account.

Chong, 85, is a more active user of the platform than Marin, 77. Both follow an eclectic mix of organizations that work to loosen marijuana laws and related publications Magazine, multiple comedians and others in the entertainment industry and a series of arts and culture organizations.

Searching for mentions of cannabis on the platform is something else that will likely serve up ads for the gummies, Black said.

“We aren’t controlling how they are being placed,” he said. “That’s the platform, not us.”

It also appears that users who follow accounts related to bands like The Grateful Dead and Phish are targeted.

Placing an order is another way to get your feed filled with related ads.

“I ordered some of those Cheech and Chong gummies, and now my feed is nothing but weed ads, instead of bizarre useless cleaning products and bras for small boobs,” posted one user Tuesday morning. “and I am not mad abt it.”

Black said the company spends about $10 million a year on advertising across multiple platforms and has nearly $30 million in annual revenue.

“What you gotta do is get their attention, and once you got their attention, now you can give them some information that is going to astound them somehow, make them laugh or something,” Chong told The Journal in a Zoom interview during which he was snacking on his gummies. “Whatever we are doing, it works.”