• by Steve Ellwanger , October 12, 2022

Brazilian-born entrepreneur and cannabis accessories marketer Thainá Zanholo wants people to question “stupid laws around the world” while changing attitudes about legalizing cannabis.

Zanholo launched her Los Angeles-based Nowdays brand in 2021 and hopes to sell cannabis in California next year after attracting funding from former NBA star Baron Davis.

At first, she created content solely on Instagram to bring a different viewpoint to perceptions of cannabis.

“Cannabis brands are always trying to put cannabis in two different boxes—either medicinal or for potheads,” Zanholo tells Marketing Daily. “There’s a whole generation of cannabis users who aren’t potheads or sick people.”

A cannabis enthusiast herself, Zanholo’s alternative is to show the benefits of daily use while figuring out how to bring people together to “fight for legalization.”

Her Instagram channel—which gained 80,000 followers in one year—caught the attention of Brazilian filmmaker Pedro Giomi and the AKQA agency.

The result is a campaign titled “Questionable Laws.”

This video opens with a quote from King Louis XIV superimposed on a cloudy sky: “It’s legal because I wish it.”

That’s followed by footage of a man carrying a bouquet of flowers and a dead fish into a bank accompanied by the notation “It’s illegal to handle a salmon in suspicious circumstances in the UK” per the Salmon Act of 1986.

From there the questionable laws include the banning of bubblegum in Singapore, the illegality of driving an unwashed car in Russia and the prohibition of carrying ice cream “in your back pocket” in Kentucky.

The spot ends with a reminder that “There are enough questionable laws in the world. Stop harming the cannabis debate,” followed by the tiny image of a cannabis flower.

“We’re going to question stupid laws around the world,” says Zanholo. "We want to rearrange the furniture in your mind so you can come to the same conclusion as us.”

Nowdays sells such cannabis accessories as key chains, tubes for carrying joints and air fresheners online in Brazil and the United States.

The company hopes to begin selling prerolled cannabis joints in California next year and CBD products in Brazil.