Aussie fashion brand White Fox Boutique has been slapped with an ads standards breach over a TikTok clip it shared of influencers discussing their drinking plans at Coachella.
The ad in question was uploaded on White Fox Boutique’s TikTok page last month, and shows multiple influencers talking about their “mission for day one” of Coachella while inside the online retailer’s “festival house”.
“My mission is to get Chloe as drunk as possible,” one influencer says in the clip, while others said they were going to “have as many tequila shots as possible” or try “not to throw up when Sophie makes me have as many tequila shots as possible”.
The Ad Standards Community Panel, a body responsible for ensuring Aussie ads adhere to guidelines, said it had received a public complaint about the White Fox Boutique clip because it “shows influencers encouraging heavy drinking and getting each other drunk”.
“Given that the advertiser’s brand is well-known and loved by teenagers, this is inappropriate,” the complaint read.
The panel then found the ad to be in breach of a specific guideline outlined in the Code of Ethics set out by the Australian Association of National Advertisers, which oversees advertisers’ interests.
White Fox Boutique breached codes because it “depicted behaviour that encouraged unhealthy or unsafe behaviour”, the panel’s report said.
“The ad featured repeated references to getting as drunk as possible, consuming multiple tequila shots, and vomiting, which were considered to normalise excessive alcohol consumption,” it added.
While the panel acknowledged that White Fox Boutique has a “strong youth audience”, it said the ad “encouraging” excessive drinking was a breach regardless of the audience.
“The ad actively… encouraged getting drunk, which would likely be considered to be unhealthy or unsafe by prevailing community standards regardless of one’s age,” the panel said.
White Fox Boutique did not provide a response to the complaint or breach, leaving the panel to refer the matter to TikTok. At the time of writing, the ad is still viewable on White Fox Boutique’s TikTok page.
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to White Fox Boutique for comment.
It’s not the first time White Fox Boutique has found itself in hot water over its social media content.
In 2023, co-founder Georgia Contos was criticised over the brand’s plastic use after she shared Instagram clips of its warehouse filled with piles of wrapped clothes orders.
Lead images: White Fox Boutique/TikTok
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