Snoop Dog debuts his own pot-focused lifestyle brand

Merry Jane will include content from people like Seth Rogan, and business tools for the industry

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Celebrities and tech seem to go together. Startups cost money to, well, start. Celebrities have a lot of money laying around they don't know what to do with. It's a match made in heaven. And if some musician wants to give us yet another streaming service, well, who am I to argue? It ain't hurting anyone.

There is one exception to that: the lifestyle brand, where celebrities slap their names on a website, fill it with overly expensive items, in the guise of allowing the normals among us the chance to be just like them. Except, you know, without millions of dollars to spend. It's all kind of gross, if you ask me.

Now one very unlikely is debuting his own lifestyle brand, and it couldn't be any different than those other ones. That is because it is from rapper Snoop Dog and it centers around... well just guess.

Launched at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference on Monday, the brand will be called Merry Jane. It will focus, of course, around the cannabis lifestyle.

It will feature five categories: culture, new, food, style and video, and content from contributors that include actor Seth Rogen. 

Merry Jane will also have original shows, including one called “Deflowered” which will feature interviews in which people can talk about their experiences with smoking pot. Here's one that is already online, in which a couple of marines discuss how pot helps them cope with their experiences:

On top of content, the site will also offer tools for the emerging cannabis business, "bringing together consumers and businesses in a streamlined fashion, online and on mobile," Snoop said in a prepared video, announcing the website. 

The site will also includes the Goods section, which will offer products for cannabis consumption, and a map of local retail locations where people can go to buy their marijuana..

"Merry Jane offers something for everyone as the center of cannabis lifestyle," Snoop said. "Merry Jane represents the new reality of cannabis as part of our daily lives. Cannabis culture is reinventing the cultural paradigm and Merry Jane is at the helm of the move."

According to VentureBeat, the site will launch in October and will only let 420 people into the site in beta. (420... get it? Heh heh).

Other lifestyle brands

There's one thing you have to say about Snoop: this really does seem like something close to his heart. When he says this is his lifestyle, I believe him.

There are plenty of other lifestyle brands out there, and it can often be a bit bewildering that anyone would ever believe that this what these celebrities really like, or care about.

There's ED, the lifestyle brand from Ellen Degeneres; and Blake Lively's lifestyle brand, called Preserve. Former Hill star Lauren Conrad has one, named after herself, as does acrtess Elizabeth Banks. Even Tori Spelling, of all people, has one. 

The most famous lifestyle brand of all, thoigh, is probably Goop, which was founded by Gwyneth Paltrow, It has become famous for telling regular people to buy stuff, like clothing and food, that is way, way out of their price range.

Of course someone compiled a list of Paltrow's ridiculous suggestions, like $295 pajamas, a $900 blanket, and a $1,500 enamel skull pendant that looks like something you'd buy at your local Halloween store. Goop has basically become a poster child for what happens when an ultra-rich, and out of touch, celebrity tries to relate to regular people. The results are a little mind-boggling, to say the least (see below).

Goop seems to be doing well. It is planning on going from just suggesting things for you to buy, to selling them to you directly.

In November, it hired a new CEO in Lisa Gersh, who was previously CEO and president of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and co-founder of Oxygen Media, and it revealed plans to expand its e-commerce push, and to launch its own label, in the apparel, beauty and home categories. It also raised a $10 million Series A round in August.

One thing that will likely never change: the ridiculous products that it sells. I wish I were kidding about this, but among its new products are $1,695 "hip-hop themed clutches," including one that says, "Hov," in honor of Paltrow's BFF Jay-Z, and another honoring Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. Because those two guys were such good friends in real life that it's pretty likely that Biggie actually had Tupac killed. Also, there's nothing they would have wanted more than to have their names used to sell overly priced handbags to rich people. 

Take a look at Steven Colbert hitting the nail on the head with his amazing, and hilarious, takedown of the lifestyle brand fad:

(Image source: merryjane.com)