A Sidemen Sunday YouTube video has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which ruled it was an ad for the influencer group’s vodka brand XIX, but had not been clearly labelled as such.
Two complaints had initially raised that it was likely to appeal to people under the age of 18, but these were not upheld by the regulator.
Instead, the ASA said the video was was not easily identifiable as marketing communications.
The video, which appeared on the Sidemen’s YouTube channel, showed the Sidemen doing challenges around London in two teams, before a voiceover says “Right guys, it’s drop time.”
This was followed by on-screen text which said: “XIX vodka. Just bigger” and “This is the Maggy”.
@xixvodkaJUST DROPPED…THE MAGGY 🤏 XIX just got bigger 😮 Head over to XIXvodka.com for more information 🫡♬ original sound – XIX Vodka
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The regulator said the video was an advert because a caption underneath contained a direct link to the XIX website which was in a non-paid for space under the Sidemen’s control.
This allowed users to enter their email address in order to be notified when the drink it was available for purchase.
There was also nothing to identify it as an ad in the video or in the caption, for example no #ad.
However, regarding the complaints about appealing to underage individuals, the ASA acknowledged that significantly fewer than 25% of the Sidemen’s audience were identified as under the age of 18 (both on the YouTube channel and in the wider context of the video).
It also found that while KSI was easily identifiable, he was not shown carrying out any stunts and only featured as a voiceover which was serious in tone.
Moreover, there was no cartoon like imagery, or similar, which could appeal to kids.
The Sidemen assured the ASA that the ad had been removed from the video, but the regulator found that it had breached the CAP code around making the intent of marketing communications clear.
It ruled that the ad must not appear again in the form complained of, and told the Sidemen and XIX vodka that it must include a clear and prominent identifier such as ‘#ad’.
