The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2025
Au Vodka's TikTok stars: a 23-year-old and a 24-year-old banned by the under-25 rule
Love Island's Lucinda Strafford, streamer Kai Cenat at 23 and a 24-year-old in a Facebook post: three Au Vodka social ads banned under the alcohol code.
Au Vodka · 2025-09-24
What happened
Three social media ads earlier in 2025 drew the ASA's attention. A TikTok video showed Love Island star Lucinda Strafford filling a gold Au Vodka vending machine with bottles, saying 'That is so good'. Another TikTok video showed US streamer Kai Cenat, then 23, opening and drinking from a bottle and asking 'Au Vodka! Who's sending me liquor through the mail?'. And an April Facebook post showed a 24-year-old woman holding Au Vodka Juicy Peach.
The ASA assessed them under CAP Code rules 18.15, which forbids alcohol ads directed at under-18s or placed in media where more than 25% of the audience is under 18, and 18.16, which says anyone shown drinking must not be, or seem to be, under 25.
On Strafford, the ASA found Love Island is popular with under-18s and TikTok's algorithm would be likely to serve the video to under-18s through For You pages; Au Vodka's audience demographics screenshot lacked any data for the 13–17 age group, so it could not demonstrate compliance. On Cenat, his age was the problem: a 23-year-old in a significant role broke rule 18.16 regardless of whether the US ad complied with American law. Au Vodka conceded the Facebook post breached the rules — a 24-year-old holding the product — calling it an 'oversight' and promising stricter checks.
The ASA upheld the complaints on 24 September 2025. All three ads must not appear again.
Why it happened
- An audience is not a following: Love Island stars carry a built-in under-18 audience, and 'designed for adults' does not change what the algorithm delivers
- Age rules are casting rules: whether a 23-year-old streamer is legal in the US does not matter to a code that says nobody in the ad may be under 25
- The one breach Au Vodka conceded was enough to sink the campaign's credibility — the other two fights were lost on the same principle
The lesson
In alcohol advertising, the cast and the channel are the ad. Under-25 faces and influencer feeds that reach under-18s break the code even when the copy is clean.
Aftermath
All three ads must not appear again. Au Vodka acknowledged the 24-year-old's ad as an 'oversight' and said it would tighten its compliance checks. The BBC covered the ruling on 24 September 2025, noting it followed the brand's rapid growth as a premium vodka sold partly through celebrity social posts.
Sources
- ASA ruling: Au Vodka Ltd (TikTok and Facebook ads)
- BBC: Love Islander's vodka ad pulled for targeting under-18s
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