MTA updates advertising guidelines, including on cannabis and sex-related ads

On Wednesday, the MTA updated its advertising guidelines, following its settlement with NYC–based sex-tech and wellness company Dame.

• ICYMI, in 2019, the MTA and Outfront Media (the company that handles its ad placements) rejected Dame’s ad placements, reportedly due to their sexual nature.
• Dame then filed a lawsuit against the NYC transportation authority, alleging that the ban was discriminatory, since ads for erectile dysfunction medication had been allowed to run.
• The MTA and Dame settled earlier last week, allowing the brand to run an updated, watered-down version of its campaign on the subway through January (Dame couldn’t run its original creative).

So what’s new? The new guidelines not only provide more explicit rules around sex-related advertising, but also prohibit cannabis advertising outright for the first time.

Stand clear of the closing doors, please

The sex part…before: The previous version of the guidelines stated that ads containing “sexually explicit material that appeals to the prurient interest in sex” were prohibited, as well as ones that promote “an escort service or sexually oriented business.”

...and after: However, the old guidelines did not provide a definition for “a sexually oriented business.” The new ones do—and the definition is rather extensive.

• The MTA says sexually oriented products or services include “any good, product, or service primarily related to or used for the purposes of sexual activity,” including “sex toys” as well as “sexual enhancement products,” “sexual dysfunction medications and supplements,” and more.
• It also prohibits any ad that “depicts, references or contains symbols or images reasonably understood to represent” various aspects of “Sexual Activity” and bodily functions, “excluding kissing.”

The cannabis part: Cannabis wasn’t mentioned in the past iteration of the MTA’s advertising guidelines, but now, advertising cannabis or any cannabis-related product—or hallucinogenic mushrooms or hallucinogenic-mushroom-related products—is prohibited.

• A medical marijuana company ran ads in the subway in 2017, but when asked to comment on if that would be allowed under the new rules, the deputy comms director for the MTA, Eugene Resnick, would only refer back to the language/wording in the new policy
• The November MTA Board Meeting records note that the new advertising policy “responds to recent developments in the decriminalization of cannabis in New York.”

Why it matters: Brian Rappaport, CEO of boutique OOH media shop Quan Media Group, estimates that the MTA could lose around 10% to 15% of its revenue because of these new guidelines. “Ridership is at 70% and above now—things are getting back to normal. [The subway is] really a great place for a brand to be, but if you can’t be there for whatever reason, and you’re being blocked by the MTA, you shouldn’t pout,” he told Marketing Brew, adding that buying a multitude of digital-out-of-home options streetside is a good alternative.