TikTok star who is 'paid to party' has 'irresponsible' alcohol video banned by watchdog after downing four VK cocktails in under 90 seconds and saying 'we're getting lit tonight'

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 while it was under investigation.

TikTok said the promotion of alcohol was prohibited on their platform, and that the ad had been deleted by the creator.

In another recent video, she mixed together blue WKD with rosé wine, while loud music blasted 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 shouldn't contain anything likely to lead people to adopt 'unwise' styles of drinking.

The ruling added: 'The ASA understood that "pres" 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 considered that referencing "pres" in the ad implied that alcohol was going to be consumed in excessive amounts.

'We understood that the word "lit" had a long history of being used as a slang term for being drunk.

'We considered that consumers would likely associate the phrase "we're getting lit tonight" to relate to the excessive consumption of alcohol and becoming intoxicated.

'We also considered that the comment "We're going to do four in one" stated Ms Walsh's intention to drink four cocktails in one video, which further implied the excessive consumption of alcohol.

'[Ms Walsh] did not measure any of the ingredients in the drinks; free pouring the alcohol throughout.

'We noted that the volume of "mixer" in each cocktail was minimal.

'Furthermore, Ms Walsh quickly drank each cocktail after making it, consuming all four drinks in under 90 seconds, which demonstrated that excessive amounts of alcohol had been consumed over a short space of time.

'Because the ad encouraged excessive drinking and depicted alcohol being handled and served irresponsibly we concluded that it was irresponsible, and therefore breached the Code.'

Then ASA also upheld a second breach of the CAP Code stating that marketing communication must be 'obviously identifiable as such'.

Regulators noted that while Ms Walsh said she hadn't been paid by VK to create the video, VK had confirmed that they had 'provided her with the products free of charge in return for her promotion of their brand', which it considered 'constituted payment'.

She regularly posts videos consuming alcoholic drinks and detailing what she is drinking before a night out (pictured)

'We therefore considered that VK had editorial control over the post, despite some of their requests being disregarded by Ms Walsh,' the ASA's ruling said.

'We did not consider that the recipe images made clear that there was a commercial relationship between Ms Walsh and the VK brand.

'While Ms Walsh made regular references to the VK brand throughout the video... the post was not obviously identifiable as a marketing communication, and did not make clear its commercial intent.

The ASA concluded that the ad must not appear 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 were obviously identifiable as ads.