Smokepops LDN, a brand that sells flavour-enhancing balls designed to be inserted into cigarette filters, has had three ads banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The news comes as nicotine vaping product sales continue to skyrocket in the UK. Most recently, ‘Elf Bar’, a Chinese e-cigarette brand, broke British advertising rules by promoting its products to young people.
The SmokePops ads featured demonstrations of how to insert the product into a filter of a cigarette. Two other ads also claimed to be safe and ‘healthy’ to use as the product is ‘made with lab-tested organic ingredients’.
Members of the public contacted the ASA to challenge whether the ads ‘irresponsibly’ promoted smoking because they featured a cigarette.
The advertising watchdog also questioned whether the claims “safe to use”, “optimum health” and “a healthy option”, were misleading as the product itself is intended to be used while smoking cigarettes.
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Smokepops LDN responded by stating that they did not intend to promote harmful or unhealthy behaviour. The brand claimed that the product’s manufacturer held documentation which included safety certification and ingredient quality assurance.
Nevertheless, the ASA concluded that including a demonstration of how to insert the product into a cigarette filter had the effect of encouraging smoking.
“The ads should not appear again in the forms complained of. We told Smokepops LDN to ensure that their advertising did not encourage smoking or suggest that the products were safe or healthy,” the ASA added.
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