Virgin Atlantic doesn’t appear to have any hard feelings after a cannabis beverage company made false and satirical claims about a deal to sell its THC-infused beverages on flights—but the airline says it had to draw a line when it came to an AI-generated video and fake letter from its CEO about the supposed partnership.
The cannabis business Drippy—which sells drinks with 10mg of THC and 10mg of CBN—made a concerted effort earlier this month to convince people its beverages would be made available to adults on certain domestic flights. And while the stunt proved effective, with certain media outlets reporting the partnership as fact, that didn’t end up being the case.
Virgin Atlantic did get in touch with the cannabis company to address the made-up content, but a spokesperson told Marijuana Moment there was “no legal team involvement,” and the airline expressed to Drippy that they “loved the fun” and “let the team know how much it made us smile.”
Still, “we have sent a friendly note asking for the video to be removed because we can’t support fake AI generated videos/ fake letters from one of our CEOs,” the spokesperson said.
Alleh Lindquist, co-founder of Drippy, told Marijuana Moment that “Virgin responded to our guerrilla marketing with a friendly note, which we appreciated.”
“From the start, it was always Drippy’s intent to reveal this as a spoof—we just chose to keep our responses vague for the first 24 hours. After that, we gave a full explanation,” he said. “Unfortunately for some outlets, they ran the story without confirming with us or Virgin. Marijuana Moment was the only one that waited for a response, making you essentially the first to expose the spoof.”
“Our goal with Drippy has always been to spark curiosity and entertain. This stunt was designed for consumers, not industry insiders,” Lindquist said. “I can only assume some in the industry ignored the obvious red flags because they wanted it to be true so badly. The one-two punch of realizing it wasn’t real and feeling a bit duped might have left a few grumpy faces.”
While social media posts around the spoof, including one featuring a made-up letter from Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss, have now been deleted by Drippy, the video spoof is still available—albeit with a much clearer title clarifying that it’s not an official ad from the airline company.
For what it’s worth, Virgin’s founder, Richard Branson, has been public about his support for legalizing marijuana, ending the broader drug war and providing access to psychedelics for therapeutic purposes.
Image element courtesy of Steve Fitzgerald.
