United Kingdom

A paid-for TikTok ad for Daniels Vapes featured a video depicting someone asleep with a thought bubble above their head. The scene inside the bubble panned around a shop and showed shelves of brightly colored e-cigarette products. The ASA challenged whether (1) the ad breached the CAP Code by directly or indirectly promoting unlicensed nicotine-containing e-liquids and their components in online media; and (2) TikTok had breached the rules for Video Sharing Platforms (VSPs) by including an ad for e-cigarettes. Daniels Vapes claimed they were following a trend on TikTok and had not realized that it represented a breach of the Code. They believed they or another account user had accidentally marked the video as a paid ad. TikTok claimed that an element of their moderation systems did not identify the ad as an e-cigarette promotion and prohibit it accordingly. TikTok said that e-cigarettes might appear to resemble pens, highlighters, lipstick tubes and even toys and so at times raised challenges for moderation models.

The CAP Code states that except for media targeted exclusively to the trade, marketing communications with the direct or indirect effect of promoting nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and their components that were not licensed as medicines were not permitted in online media and some other forms of electronic media. The ASA concluded that the ad breached the Code as it had the direct or indirect effect of promoting e-cigarettes that were not licensed as medicines in non-permitted media.

The VSP Appendix states that advertisements for e-cigarettes and refills are prohibited. That rule applies to advertising that was “marketed, sold or arranged” by VSPs, such as TikTok. As such, TikTok breached its responsibility to ensure that ads appearing in paid-for space on its platform complied with the Appendix rules.

The ASA ordered that the ad not appear again in the form complained about.