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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Stuart MacDonald

Edinburgh club told to remove TikTok showing women with drinks poured into mouths

Social media posts for four Scottish bars and nightclubs have been banned for encouraging excessive drinking.

Venues in Edinburgh and Glasgow were reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for promotions highlighting alcohol prices.

A TikTok video for Edinburgh nightspot Lulu featured clips of women holding drinks and having drinks poured from bottles of spirits into their mouths.

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The Hive nightclub in Edinburgh placed a post on Instagram with text reading "I wasn't going to drink tonight but then I remembered it's the only part of adulthood I enjoy."

Another post on Facebook said: "Not only do I dance like nobody is watching, I also drink as if I don't work in the morning."

The Slug and Lettuce bar in Glasgow put posts which encouraged people to drink multiple cocktails while a post from The Spiritualist bar in the city was ruled to have encouraged people to drink again after a hangover.

The ASA launched an investigation into the ads and banned all of them from appearing again in their original form.

The watchdog said the posts all breached rule 18.1 of the Advertising Code which states: "Marketing communications must be socially responsible and must contain nothing that is likely to lead people to adopt styles of drinking that are unwise.

"For example, they should not encourage excessive drinking. Care should be taken not to exploit the young, the immature or those who are mentally or socially vulnerable."

In their ruling on the Lulu TikTok post, the ASA said: "The ad featured two clips of women having drinks poured from bottles of spirits into their mouths, alongside clips of the women holding drinks and sitting by a large sharing cocktail.

"While the ASA acknowledged that some of the clips were brief, we considered that the ad showed alcohol being handled and consumed in an irresponsible manner and encouraged excessive drinking."

The Hive and Lulu told the ASA they accepted that the posts were not socially responsible and said they had removed them.

A spokesperson for Stonegate Group, who own the Slug and Lettuce, said: "We immediately removed the posts that were deemed non-compliant with the Code and we recognise that on these occasions we could have presented our promotional offers in a better way.

"A full briefing with our teams has taken place as we look to ensure we remain compliant going forward."

A spokeswoman for The Spiritualist said: "We were disappointed by the recent ruling from the ASA in relation to two of our social media posts.

"The posts in question were designed to be playful and tongue-in-cheek and were certainly not intended to condone or encourage excess or irresponsible drinking.

"We hope that going forward the ASA will make the rules clearer for businesses that are active on social media and avoid needlessly 'naming and shaming' otherwise responsible businesses that happen to stray across the line with their posts."

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