A ‘paid to party’ influencer has had one of his TikTok videos banned by advertising watchdogs – after downing four cocktails in under 90 seconds.
Danielle Walsh, from Belfast in Northern Ireland, had made the video as a paid advertisement for drinks company VK.
However, she was unable to identify it as an advert and it subsequently broke the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) rules on encouraging excessive drinking.
The party animal, who has more than 400,000 followers on TikTok, regularly posts videos of herself consuming alcoholic beverages and describing what she drinks before a night out.
Despite the heavy drinking, Danielle says she never gets a hangover thanks to eating pickled onion chips and Diet Coke.
Danielle Walsh, 36, from Northern Ireland, saw her TikTok banned by the ASA
She failed to identify it as an advert and it subsequently broke the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) rules on encouraging excessive drinking
The social media star was seen in the video making four cocktails for ‘pressure’ by freely pouring different types of alcohol, including vodka, peach schnapps, Amaretto and a whiskey liqueur.
After making them by mixing VK alcopops with several spirits, the 36-year-old care worker announced her intention to ‘do four in one’ and downed all four drinks in less than a minute and a half.
The ASA has now banned the video for encouraging excessive drinking and not being overtly identifiable as an advertisement.
The regulator explained that the video showed Ms Walsh – who has her own line of metal straws that allow drinkers to “down pints like an exhaust pipe” – standing behind a bar with a row of glasses in front of her, while music plays in the background.
Turning to the camera, she said: ‘So for press tonight, let me show you what we’re drinking.
‘We’re going to make it four in one because we’re going to be fired up tonight.’
Ms Walsh then made four cocktails and said: ‘Let’s try it’ after making each and quickly drinking them.
The cocktails paired different flavors of VK alcopops with vodka, peach schnapps, Amaretto and whiskey liqueur, which were ‘free poured’ into the glasses.
Despite the heavy drinking, Danielle says she never gets a hangover thanks to eating pickled onion chips and Diet Coke
As they were made, images appeared on the screen with the ingredients of each cocktail, its name and the VK logo.
The text at the bottom of the video, which was posted in October 2023, read: ‘Lads make some drinkssss.’
ASA regulators complained that the video was ‘irresponsible’ as it encouraged excessive consumption of alcohol and was not overtly identifiable as an advertisement.
The ASA ruling stated that Global Brands Ltd, the company that owns VK, confirmed that they had given Ms Walsh the alcoholic beverages used in the ad in exchange for her promoting their brand on her TikTok channel.
They explained that they had asked Ms Walsh to make a series of videos showing the creation of each cocktail, rather than “one video of four cocktails being made and consumed”.
They also claimed to have stipulated that their products be promoted in a ‘responsible manner’ and had asked to be able to approve the videos before they were published.
On this occasion, the company said this had not happened and that Ms Walsh had posted the videos without their final approval.
VK also accepted that the video should have been clearly labeled as an advertisement and said they had asked Ms Walsh’s agent to remove the video on several occasions, although their requests had not been accepted.
The professional partier is paid for pints of WKD and rosé
Ms Walsh said VK had not paid her for the post and agreed to remove the video while it was under investigation.
TikTok said the promotion of alcohol was prohibited on its platform and that the ad had been removed by the creator.
In another recent video, she mixed blue WKD with rose wine while loud music blared in the background.
The ASA’s ruling said the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) states that ads must be ‘socially responsible’ and should not contain anything that might lead people to take ‘unwise’ drinking habits.
The ruling added: “The ASA understood that ‘pressure’ was a reference to ‘pre-drinking’ or ‘pre-drinks’, the practice of consuming alcohol at home before going out to a pub, bar or club where further alcohol would be consumed.
“We understood that pre-drinking was often intended to achieve intoxication prior to attending a licensed venue and as such we believed that the reference to ‘pressure’ in the ad implied that alcohol would be consumed in large quantities.
‘We understood that the word “lit” had a long history of being used as a slang term for being drunk.
“We estimated that consumers would likely associate the phrase ‘we’re getting fired up tonight’ to relate to the excessive consumption of alcohol and getting drunk.
“We also believed that the comment ‘We’re going to make four in one’ indicated Ms Walsh’s intention to drink four cocktails in one video, further suggesting excessive consumption of alcohol.
“(Ms Walsh) did not measure any of the ingredients in the drinks; freely pour the alcohol through.
‘We noticed that the amount of “mixer” in each cocktail was minimal.
“Furthermore, Ms Walsh drank each cocktail quickly after making it and consumed all four drinks in under 90 seconds, showing that excessive amounts of alcohol had been consumed in a short space of time.
‘Because the ad encouraged excessive drinking and showed alcohol being handled and served irresponsibly, we concluded it was irresponsible and therefore breached the code.’
Then the ASA also upheld another breach of the CAP Code, which states that marketing communications must be “obviously identifiable as such”.
Regulators noted that although Ms Walsh said she had not been paid by VK to make the video, VK had confirmed that they had “given her the products for free in return for her promotion of their brand”, which it considered ” constituted ‘payment’.
She regularly posts videos of herself consuming alcoholic beverages and describing what she drinks before a night out (pictured)
“We therefore considered that VK had editorial control over the post, despite some of their requests being ignored by Ms Walsh,” the ASA’s decision read.
“We did not believe that the recipe images made it clear that there was a commercial relationship between Mrs Walsh and the VK brand.
“While Ms Walsh regularly referred to the VK brand throughout the video… the post was not clearly identifiable as a marketing communication and did not make clear its commercial intent.
The ASA concluded that the ad must not be shown again in the same form and warned Global Brands Ltd and Ms Walsh against encouraging excessive consumption of alcohol in future videos and that they could be clearly identified as advertisements.