A social media influencer who was paid to advertise vaping by a tobacco giant has deleted the promotional posts.
Musician and medical student Annabel Liddell, 24, was paid by British American Tobacco New Zealand (BAT) to advertise their new vaping brand Vype through her Instagram account, which has more than 10,000 followers.
All three of her the posts advertising the vape have since been deleted.
Liddell was unable to be reached for comment but a BAT spokesman said they did not request she delete the posts following the revelation that she was under their age advertising requirements.
"No direction was provided to her to delete, she seems to have done it herself following publication of your story. There will be no repercussions," a BAT spokesman said in a written statement.
BAT said that all social media influencers were hired through an agency and had strict guidelines that people contracted needed to be 25 and over.
Since being told by Stuff that Liddell was under the age of their guidelines they have stopped using her as a part of the advertising campaign.
"She does not meet BAT's voluntary internal marketing practice of only using influencers who are 25 and over, part of our efforts to market responsibly and in particular reduce youth exposure," the spokesperson said in the written statement.
"BAT uses an agency who are thoroughly briefed in on these requirements, which unfortunately were not followed in this particular instance.
"As this influencer does not meet our internal requirements we will not be using her for further work at this point."
Although vapes contain no tobacco, the Ministry of Health states that the same restrictions do apply to vaping products under the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990, which is expected to be amended with stricter standards for vaping this year, which will see vaping advertisements banned.
A study into the effects of vaping released on January 31 found it was twice as effective as chewing gum and nicotine patches at helping smokers quit.
Since 2015, there have only been two complaints to the ASA involving vaping advertisements.
In 2016 a complaint against Cosmic NZ was laid after an advertisement e-cigarette products played during a mobile game but the complaint was not upheld after the ASA found no wrong-doing.
In 2018 a complaint was made against The Vape Shed but was surrounding a mis-leading advertisement, rather than the advertising of vaping.