Thanks to a contest from Intuit, the payment processing company and makers of Quicken and Quickbooks software, Super Bowl 2014 may see the first-ever pro-marijuana Super Bowl ad.

In the never-ending race to get your Super Bowl ad to generate attention for months before and after the big game, Intuit decided on a clever advertising strategy: They wouldn’t create an ad for themselves; rather they’d hold a contest for small businesses to compete for the best ad concept, and they’d make a Super Bowl ad for the contest winner.

Everyone wins: The small business gets exposure they never could have afforded otherwise, and Intuit gets to look like a champion.

Except something happened Intuit didn’t count on: The pro-marijuana non-profit NORML, whose mission is to end the federal war on pot and advocate national marijuana legalization, won the contest.

NORML’s entry on the contest site was quickly upvoted to the number-one spot. Their entry reads:

Together, we the people, are ending America’s war on pot. With the last election and with the recent announcement from the attorney general in Washington DC, we are beautifully positioned to make sure a responsible, adult American citizen is never again arrested for the use of recreational marijuana. …Please take a moment of your time to support our campaign to bring the message of legalization to the masses with this Super Bowl Ad. Together, we WILL legalize marijuana.

According to contest rules the final winner will be chosen by Intuit staff after the voting is finished. So they could pull rank and override the popular vote, giving the Super Bowl ad to the second place company. But doing so would cost them all the good will this whole contest was supposed to generate in the first place. Spending millions on a Super Bowl ad to make your company look like a giant asshole is any marketing department’s worst nightmare.

And even though Intuit has refused to work with marijuana-related businesses in the past, it sounds like they’re going to hold up their end of the bargain.

“We have no stance on medical marijuana as a company,” the company told Huffington Post. “By design, we’ve had a diverse range of businesses entering Small Business Big Game and sharing their unique stories with the world.”

NORML is no stranger to contests—they ran a contest of their own to create cable TV ads in 2009 to honor the 20 millionth marijuana arrest in the U.S., and have entered and lost other contests because they’re an advocacy group for a federally illegal substance.

“We’re hoping that, like other corporate-won contests in the past, we don’t fall victim of political correctness,” NORML director told Allen St. Pierre told HuffPo. “But our goal is more about generating buzz and conversation. [In the marijuana industry], we acknowledge that one of our major failings over the years has been our marketing. So this was an easy contest to be attracted to.”

The Super Bowl spot comes as marijuana legalization is attracting more mainstream momentum, with the Justice Department recently saying they’d allowed local legalization regulations to stand in states that pass such laws and John McCain saying it may be time to end the national prohibition. An ad in the Super Bowl may help push the needle on consensus. Let’s hope Intuit doesn’t wimp out!