Vape ads ‘targeting youth’ to be investigated by watchdog

THE advertising watchdog has launched an investigation into vaping promotions on Instagram following Daily Telegraph findings.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) confirmed it was looking into three posts to assess whether they had featured underage people.

The organisation is also investigating whether the e-cigarettes involved in the promotional posts are permitted to be advertised on social media.

The move comes the month after The Telegraph revealed that vape products with cartoons on were being promoted to children as young as 13 by Instagram’s suggested posts feature. Since 2016 it has been illegal to sell e-cigarettes to under-18s in the UK.

The investigation also found that some vape shops and businesses appeared to be using young “influencers” with large Instagram followings to run promotional posts for their products.

These promotions were not official Instagram ads, but instead sponsored posts that also fall under advertising regulations. A spokesman for the ASA said: “We have now launched formal investigations into each of the ads. We will publish our findings in due course.”

ASA rules state that people featuring in e-cigarette advertisements “must neither be, nor seem to be, under 25”.

John Dicey, the head of Allen Carr’s Easyway cessation clinics, warned that promotions featuring young people could project a “sexy, young, aspirational view of vaping” to an underage audience.

He said: “It’s really taking the place of the old cigarette adverts in Fifties, Sixties and Seventies using the exact same techniques.

“Youngsters believe e-cigarettes are not particularly harmful or addictive, but they always aspire to move on to the next level. The inclination is to move on to the ‘hard stuff ’ – cigarettes.”

About one in six children aged between 11 and 18 has tried e-cigarettes, with many saying that they like the flavours.

A report from Public Health England earlier this year also showed that the number of children and teenagers trying vaping has doubled in five years.