Ten Motives e-cigarette ad banned after claims it appealed to children
Ten Motives electronic cigarettes has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the watchdog received complaints that its advert was likely to appeal to children.
A leaflet created by Ten Motives gathered complaints after it used an image of an ice-cream with a flake replaced with an e-cigarette.
The company said the ad was intended to appeal to smokers and to inform them that flavours were available for electronic cigarettes as an alternative to the taste of tobacco; a fact it believed was little know.
Ten Motives added that the mailing was sent to a “focused demographic” of people who had a “high propensity” to be smokers.
The ASA disagreed and said that the image, coupled with text such as ‘choose a free flavour’, was likely to appeal to children and should not have been used in an untargeted medium, such as mailings posted through letterboxes.
The ad must not appear again in its current form and Ten Motives were told by the ASA to ensure their future advertising was responsibly targeted.