The ads appeared in Front, Viz and Bizarre magazines, and received complaints from Imperial Tobacco, which owns rival cigarette paper brand Rizla.
The ads featured the head and shoulders of a naked woman, who had the words "smooth skins" tattooed on her shoulder. There were two different executions featuring different models.
Imperial objected to the ad, created by the Tandem agency, because the use of the word "skins" in the context of the product "condoned the product's use for the consumption of illegal drugs".
Zig-Zag's argument was that it was unaware of evidence that the word "skins" condoned illegal drug use -- although it said it was aware that woodwind players used cigarette papers to dry the keypads on their instruments.
In its defence, Zig-Zag said that the word "skins" was a slang term for cigarette papers. However, the Advertising Standards Authority said that the word "skin" was defined in different dictionaries as both a cigarette paper and a paper used for rolling cannabis cigarettes, and ordered Zig-Zag not to use the reference in future ads.
Rebutting the accusations of using glamorous and attractive female models, Zig-Zag said that the women in the ads were not professionals, and were chosen because it wanted to depict ordinary people. However, the ASA also rejected Zig-Zag's arguments, saying that the approach "linked smoking with admirable qualities, exaggerated the pleasure of smoking and implied that it was glamorous to smoke and therefore breached the Cigarette Code".
A third ad, which ran in the trade press and stated that Zig-Zag rolling papers and accessories were "Scotland's No. 1 brand", with a footnote saying "Zig-Zag Data", was also banned, because the ASA judged that Zig-Zag had not justified the claim, which was challenged.
Zig-Zag sells a range of cigarette papers, rolling machines and tips. The company is based in Manchester.
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