If you've seen the rash of 'open late' advertisements for junk food, you probably thought it was appealing to some long-tail demographic of fat people who absolutely must have a taco at 1 AM.

Nope, and it isn't for the usual 'males ages 18-54' or whatever demographic package advertisers usually go on about.  It's stoners.

Hollywood never leads on issues, they try to jump on a bandwagon of popular culture, and in 2004 they did so with Harold&Kumar Go to White Castle. The movie was as complicated as it sounds; an office guy and his stoner friend set out to get burgers from White Castle.(1) They weren't the first, stoner comedies have been around since Cheech&Chong records (and maybe before) but since then all-night diners, which used to be mostly truckers and travelers, have instead become late-night fast-food places, catering to the inebriated demographic. Two years after Harold&Kumar made fast food the stoner goal of the movie, the Jack In The Box franchise unveiled its 'fourth meal' campaign, for those 'hungry' times between dinner and breakfast, apparently like after watching "H.R. Pufnstuf" or "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" or whatever people watch to be ironic.

Mother Nature Network notes marketers are no longer even being subtle about it.  I remember the idiot in this Jack In The Box commercial, but I assumed he was just an idiot.  Now, placed in context, with the van and what not, I get their message:



The Fix says stoners are so alarmed by the influx of advertising they are clamoring for less mass media respect. Experts call it 'stoner reflective' marketing. Why is it okay now?  For one thing, Baby Boomers, who were the first mass stoners, are now in charge.  I mean, Cheech and Chong are in fiber cereal commercials, that is not subtle.(2) So they recognize that some young people are going to be stoners and they are going to buy snacks, so they want the action. Mother Nature Network also notes it has worked; while correlation is not causation, a 6% boost in sales for Jack In The Box after starting its stoner marketing (and even a 'bong' sound at the end I never noticed in context before) is considerable.

Look for Whole Foods to start its stoner marketing campaign soon. The overlap in their shopping demographic is already built in. And maybe, as Adam Raymond at The Fix puts it, "Running shoes for cocaine users can’t be far off."

NOTES:

(1) I happened to watch a few minutes of "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" and this bit was nuanced enough it made me want to watch the whole thing.  Don't bother, but this part was well-done.  Basically, they got arrested for being terrorists and get sent to Guantanamo Bay but by the end they find Pres. George W. Bush and he pardons them. There is a really funny scene just before this (they call him a hypocrite and he has the perfect response) too;

Kumar: But, listen, to be honest, after all the s&!% that we've been through...I don't know if we can trust our government anymore.

Bush: Trust the government?

Kumar: Yeah.

Bush: Heck, I'm in the government and I don't even trust it. You don't have to believe in your government to be a good American. You just have to believe in your country

(2) One company is even less subtle than the rest.  They are marketing junk food without any hints. Loud Mouth Burritos are being made by stoners for stoners. They even made them 420 calories. Get it? 420??  Okay, I didn't either so I had to look it up but clearly their demographic gets it.  Urban Dictionary reveals 420 became codeword in the early 1970s, because that was the time when stoners would all get baked every day.