Adverts by influencers promoting vaping products on TikTok have been banned by a UK watchdog, after they were found to have broken advertising rules.
Two posts have been pulled, relating to products made by Elf Bar and HQD Tech.
One video, from the user @Panaxhe_ shows a young man choosing a blueberry-flavoured Elf Bar for breakfast, a brightly coloured device, before returning later for lunch, grabbing a passion fruit-flavoured vape.
Another, from former Gogglebox contributor George Baggs, who was 19 years old when he posted the advert, shows him holding up an HDQ device called Wave, still in its packaging, with a caption: “Matching my outfit with my new HQD v@pe”.
The @ symbol is often used instead of the letter A on TikTok in an attempt to get around the censorship of certain words that are banned, which results in videos being removed.
As the video went on, Mr Baggs got dressed while smoking the vape, with text saying: “Always get asked to do these sorta [sic] vids so here ya go ?? #HQDVIP #uk #trending.”
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) looked into whether the posts broke rules around promoting unlicensed, nicotine-containing, devices on TikTok.
There are tight regulations targeted at the promotion of vaping products in the UK, that are designed to prevent the marketing of them to young people.
Promotions for the devices on TikTok, where users must be older than 13 years old, appear to flout the rules.
Green Fun Alliance, which was trading as Elf Bar, said it had asked the creator to take down their content, adding it would improve its monitoring online, to ensure it complied with the rules.
As a result of the ASA complaint, it stopped promotion on TikTok in the UK.
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