British American Tobacco has apologized for running an ad for its Vype e-cigarette in an iPad game aimed at children.
The ad drew attention after Graham Brown-Martin, a UK-based author, tweeted a pic of the ad:
.@ecigaretteforum agreed, so over to @batpress why are you advertising to kids via iPad games? pic.twitter.com/aVstTSrFPM— Graham Brown-Martin (@GrahamBM) October 25, 2013
BAT quickly apologized with the following tweet:
We've found a problem with the advertising of Vype. We apologise and have pulled all online Vype advertising. We're investigating the cause— BAT Press Office (@BATPress) October 25, 2013
[seealso slug="e-cigarette"]
It's not clear how the ad ended up in the game. A BAT rep gave Mashable the following statement on the matter:
We apologise that an advert has ended up on an channel that it clearly wasn’t intended or appropriate for. As soon as this was brought to our attention, we pulled all our online advertising whilst we look into this matter further and establish how it happened.
Vype is an e-cigarette brand marketed and sold by Nicoventures, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco. Children are not, and will never be, the target audience for Vype, which is a product aimed at adult consumers who are able to make an informed choice regarding which brand they choose.
BAT launched Vype in July.