Czech Republic: Platan brewery fined for advertising immodest beer drinking

Czech brewery Mestsky pivovar Platan must pay CZK 5,000 in a fine for a breach of the advertising law by encouraging immodest drinking, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes said in a regional supplement on June 18.
The tax office for the Jihocesky region fined Platan for an advertising campaign in which four-member teams were trying to drink as much beer as possible in 30 minutes in a contest called "Drink Your Way To The Brewery".

"[The law] bans encouraging immodest consumption of alcohol. The contest breached this [provision], and we imposed the maximum possible fine," said Jaroslav Prihoda from the tax office.

Platan has accepted the fine, amounting to less than one-third of the average Czech monthly wage, but said hundreds of similar contests took place in South Bohemia every year.

Miroslav Marek, president of the Dobry den agency monitoring world records on the Czech territory, confirmed the statement. "This is an absolutely common offence. In pubs, you see such things every day," he said.

20 June, 2006