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A vaping ad that suggested Olympic champion Sir Mo Farah endorsed the product has been banned by the advertising watchdog.

The advert for Diamond Mist Eliquids was seen on the side of London buses earlier this year.

It featured an image of the eyes and eyebrows of a bald man and the text: "Mo's Mad for Menthol. Explore Our Vape Flavours: Find Your Favourite #switchtomist" and "Some Eliquids contain Nicotine Which Is A Highly Addictive Substance".

Sir Mo even tweeted about the ad in March, saying: "You may have seen this ad & think it's me!! I can assure you that I have NOT endorsed this product or company!!!! We're looking into it."

Three people who believed the man in the ad looked similar to the athlete complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and challenged whether it misleadingly implied he had endorsed the product.

Diamond Mist said the campaign intended to appeal to a wide number of people and was created to connect personal names to the various e-liquid flavours it sold by using alliteration and a strong colour palette.

It argued that other ads in the campaign used several other names such as Claire, Lucy and Wang, adding that the skin tone of the model in the ad was not similar to that of Sir Mo.

But the watchdog said consumers would see the ad in isolation and would not necessarily be aware of that context.

It said the model in the ad was "reminiscent" enough of the Olympic champion to mislead consumers.

"Overall, we considered that the ad was likely to give consumers the misleading impression that the product had been endorsed by Sir Mo Farah," said ASA.

"We therefore concluded that the ad breached the code."