TikTok star who is 'paid to party' has 'irresponsible' alcohol video banned by ... trends now
An influencer 'paid to party' has had one of her 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 failed 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 consuming alcoholic drinks and detailing what she is drinking before a night out.
Despite the heavy drinking, Danielle says she never gets a hangover thanks to eating pickled onion crisps 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 'pres' by free 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 necked 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 obviously identifiable as an advert.
The regulator explained that the video showed Ms Walsh - who has her own line of metal straws that enable drinkers to 'down pints like an exhaust pipe' - stood behind a bar with a row of glasses in front of her whilst music plays in the background.
Addressing the camera, she said: 'So for pres tonight, let me show you what we're drinking.
'We're going to do four in one, because we're getting lit tonight.'
Ms Walsh then made four cocktails, saying, 'Let's try it' after making each one and quickly drinking them.
The cocktails paired different flavours 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 crisps and Diet Coke
As they were being made, images appeared on the screen with the ingredients for each cocktail, its name and the VK logo.
Text at the bottom of the video, which was posted in October 2023, read: 'Lets make some drinkssss.'
ASA regulators complained the video was 'irresponsible', as it encouraged excessive consumption of alcohol, and was not obviously identifiable as an ad.
The ASA ruling stated Global Brands Ltd, the company that owns VK, confirmed that they'd provided Ms Walsh with the alcoholic drinks used in the ad in return for her promotion of their brand on her TikTok channel.
They explained that they had asked Ms Walsh to create a series of videos that showed the creation of each cocktail, rather than 'one video in which four cocktails were 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 posted.
On this occasion, the company said this hadn't happened, and that Ms Walsh had posted the videos without their final approval.
VK also accepted that the video should have been clearly labelled as an ad and said they'd asked Ms Walsh's agent to remove the video on several occasions, though their requests hadn't been acknowledged.
The professional partier gets paid to neck pints of WKD and rosé
Ms Walsh said VK had not paid her for the post and agreed to remove the video
