No Beer Goggles Allowed
British alcohol regulators have apparently decided that men in alcohol ads "should be unattractive—ie overweight, middle-aged, balding etc." One ad involving three attractive women and an attractive man got spiked by regulators for "implying that the drink may bring sexual/social success, because the man in question looks quite attractive and desirable to the girls. If the man was clearly unattractive, we think that this implication would be removed from the ad." The broad motivation here appears to be a new advertising code that "stresses that links must not be made between alcohol and seduction."
Now, put aside that it's idiotic to have regulators decide who's too cute to be in commercials. First: Why pick on the men? If you've got a bunch of cute people out drinking, why is it the men in the ad who're creating the alcohol-sexy connection? Second, isn't this backwards? If I see an attractive woman and a good looking guy making eyes at each other, I attribute it to their being attractive. If I see three attractive women making eyes at some pudgy slob, that's when I think: "Man, they must be tanked." Though maybe that's the warning the regulators want to send: "Have too many of these, and you'll wake up next to some guy who looks like Louie Anderson."