Mischief @ No Fixed Address is creating great work – bold, provocative, simple…compelling. Its new work for Jay-Z’s (Shawn Carter’s) cannabis brand, Monogram, continues what one can only hope will become an agency tradition.

The campaign challenges the hypocrisies of cannabis legislation. And in the US, there are plenty of those. In various states where cannabis is illegal, bestiality, cannibalism, having a gun in your luggage, first-cousin marriage and using a flamethrower are not.

To make sure that these anomalies stand out, the statements are set in black-and-white close-ups of eight people who have been prosecuted for cannabis offences, essentially white type in a black background.

“I created this campaign to amplify the voices of those who have been penalised for the very same thing that venture capitalists are now prospering from with the emerging legal cannabis market,” Carter stated. “Far too often we forget that these are real people whose everyday lives and futures have been affected by this outdated legislature.” 

The campaign is running on outdoor murals, billboards and wild-postings as well as on mobile digital ads in LA, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Washington DC and Miami, with plans to expand to more cities before the end of the month and social videos featuring real people who have been caught up in the cannabis laws.

“There really is a state where cannibalism is legal and weed isn’t,” stated Mischief executive creative director, Kevin Mulroy. “The fact that there are real people who have done real time for nonviolent weed offences, and still are, is what Jay-Z wanted to make sure was the focal point of this poignant campaign. More often than not, their sentences are longer than those who have committed far worse crimes. So, instead of looking for stock photos of people or gritty models, Monogram cast real people whose lives have been permanently altered by ridiculous and hypocritical marijuana laws.”