Freedom Grams Wins Grand CLIO for Good at Clio Cannabis Awards 2022

Oct. 05, 2022

During the Clio Cannabis Awards ceremony at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, AROYA and GABY together with Serviceplan were awarded Top Honours in the form of a Grand Clio in the Social Good category for the initiative Freedom Grams, as well as a Silver Clio in Brand design – Brand Identity.

Clio Cannabis is the global awards competition which recognizes excellence in marketing and advertising for the cannabis industry. At the 2022 Clio Cannabis Awardspresented by Columbia Care, a total of 109 Gold, Silver and Bronze winners were recognised and simultaneously revealed at www.cliocannabisawards.com.

Last summer, cannabis production platform AROYA joined forces with retailer and manufacturer GABY Inc., along with nonprofit Last Prisoner Project to advocate for the release of people still incarcerated for cannabis possession in the U.S. More than 40,000 people in the U.S. are still serving prison sentences for possession of tiny amounts of cannabis, a drug that has now been widely legalized.

Freedom Grams was borne out of the desire to form a meaningful connection between cannabis consumers and cannabis prisoners. Freedom Grams comes in packs of 0.3, 3.5, 8.7, 18.0, and 23.5 grams — the exact amounts for which people are currently incarcerated.

The package design of the product is based on prison bars, from which generative typography literally "breaks free". All proceeds from sales go to Last Prisoner Project, which lobbies for the release of cannabis prisoners.

Kaisha-Dyan Mcmillan, Senior Content Manager, AROYA said:

“Freedom Grams is just a label. It’s a platform which invites every grower/retailer to join. Because all of us in the cannabis industry must do our part in bringing change from within.”

 

Freedom Grams has already won multiple awards, including a Bronze Lion for Design at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2022 along with several Silver and Bronze at New York Festival.

This initiative is by AROYA & GABY Inc. in partnership with Last Prisoner Project, with idea and execution by Serviceplan, together with design studio Moby Digg, type designer Michael Clasen, and creative coder Daniel Kuhnlein.

Expanding on Clio’s enduring reputation for establishing best-in-class programs honoring creative ideas in a variety of specialized verticals, Clio Cannabis celebrates the creators at the forefront of cannabis marketing and communications.  Launched in 2019, Clio Cannabis sets the bar for creative work in a rapidly growing industry, builds a greater understanding of a developing category, and elevates creative contributions from top talent and agencies.

Will Kanistras, Director of Compliance, GABY Inc. commented:

“Clio Cannabis is a huge honor, but Freedom Grams is nowhere near finished. I hope this can further grow our initiative and help end cannabis injustice.”

 

Michael Kauffman, Executive Director, Clio Cannabis said:

“This year we had more entries than ever before. And we saw some incredible work from across the globe. For example, we gave out trophies to two German agencies tonight and we had other winners from places like Canada, UK, Brazil, Germany, Israel, Croatia.”

 

Kauffman continued:

“In particular, the work that earned tonight’s Grand Clio Cannabis Awards represent such a wide spectrum of ideas—from a hyper-local partnership for a niche market, to a campaign spreading awareness about a regulatory challenge that the whole industry faces. It just goes to show that creativity can help solve all types of problems, and our aim is to celebrate the inherent value of the creative process,”