Pubdate: Sat, 08 Nov 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Steve Raabe

POT SHOPS' MARKETING IDEA HAS OTHERS RAISING RED FLAG

There's no mistaking the greenish hue on South Broadway. At least 17 
marijuana stores do brisk business on the commercial strip in Denver.

But should Broadway embrace its cannabis culture through creation of 
a "Green Mile" business association and marketing campaign?

The question is dividing pot purveyors and owners of the 
long-standing antique stores that share the same stretches of Broadway.

Tempers flared at times earlier this week, when antique dealers 
showed up at an informational meeting hosted by the fledgling Green 
Mile on Broadway Association.

Decades before pot shops opened, South Broadway was widely known as 
Denver's Antique Row.

"We are not for rebranding ourselves as the Green Mile," said Rachel 
Hoffman, senior operations manager of Turn of the Century Antiques, 
1475 S. Broadway. "It's exclusionary, and it would hurt our businesses."

Backers of the Green Mile concept say it's not their intention to be 
exclusionary. To the contrary, they're hoping to enlist the support 
of pot and non-pot businesses alike to fund a major marketing campaign.

Colorado's marijuana laws place strict controls on advertising, 
including prohibitions on billboards, vehicle-mounted signs and leaflets.

But Green Mile members - all of whom, so far, are owners of cannabis 
shops - propose to launch an ad campaign that would make no mention 
of marijuana. Rather, it would promote South Broadway as a diverse 
retail destination.

Founding member Tim Cullen, co-owner of Evergreen Apothecary, 1568 S. 
Broadway, hopes to raise $20,000 a month from South Broadway 
merchants to fund a promotional effort with local, national and even 
international reach.

Cullen said his group didn't create the Green Mile moniker, but 
simply adopted the name that arose in recent years from the profusion 
of recreational and medical pot shops on Broadway.

The Green Mile campaign might include advertising on billboards, in 
magazines and newspapers, and on taxi-mounted signs. All of that 
would be legal - provided there is no mention of marijuana or 
cannabis-related symbols, such as pot leaves.

Antique shop owners are wary. They've only recently recovered from 
more than two years of traffic and parking disruptions during a $37 
million streetscaping effort on South Broadway.

"They can call it Green Mile or anything they want, but I'm totally 
against it," said Henrik Follin, owner of Scandinavian Antiques, 1760 
S. Broadway. "That crowd is not my crowd."

Broadway has been a haven for antique shops for more than 35 years. 
The merchants formally coalesced in 1997 as the South Broadway 
Antique Row Association.

"The best-case scenario is that the efforts of the Green Mile group 
would be combined with the proactive efforts of the antique stores 
and everyone would win," said Jon Schallert, a marketing consultant 
with Longmont-based The Schallert Group. "But that means that all the 
businesses in that strip of South Broadway will have to step it up 
and not just wait for people to wander in and find them."

Green Mile backer Morgan Carr, owner of the Wellspring Collective 
dispensary, 1724 S. Broadway, said he is surprised by the budding controversy.

"The whole thing's kind of funny to us because we really just wanted 
to promote all of South Broadway," he said. "We're not trying to take 
over or cause any conflict with these guys. I think there may be some 
misguided angst from the Antique Row folks."

If the Green Mile initiative raises marketing money and moves forward 
- - not a certainty at this point - at least it needn't worry about 
trademark-infringement claims from the Stephen King serial novel and 
subsequent movie of the same name.

Sabrina Stavish, a shareholder in the Denver intellectual property 
law firm Sheridan Ross, said there is a "reasonable assumption that 
people are not going to associate them" with the hit movie about a 
death-row inmate.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom