ASA Bans TikTok Vape Ads for ELFBAR and HQD

Recently, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK conducted an investigation regarding two product promotion videos on TikTok related to ELFBAR and HQD.

An investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has found that ELFBAR and HQD violated UK advertising rules by promoting unlicensed nicotine-containing e-cigarettes on TikTok with underage celebrities as the main characters (specifically in the case of HQD). ASA has reached out to content creators and TikTok, requesting the removal of these posts.

2FIRSTS learned from ELFBAR that the company responded to ASA via email on May 9th and took appropriate action promptly.

ELFBAR has announced that it stopped content and marketing for TikTok in the UK from July 2022. Since then, the company has followed its internal advertising guidelines and prohibited employees from engaging in non-compliant advertising and marketing activities. Upon receiving a preliminary notice from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in October 2022, ELFBAR immediately launched an internal review. The review found that the videos created by ELFBAR's outsourced marketing provider were inappropriate and did not comply with its content guidelines. Meanwhile, ELFBAR contacted the TikTok content creators and requested the post be deleted.

ELFBAR announced that it has improved its internal advertising content inspection and monitoring mechanisms to avoid similar issues from happening again.

According to a report from the Evening Standard, HQD stated that they have removed all related content concerning this matter until the investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority is concluded. They also mentioned that they will take measures to ensure that the product is not marketed to a young audience.

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The UK's advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has prohibited the promotion of vape products through TikTok by Elf Bar and HQD Tech.