• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, December 10, 2008

Images of Santa Claus have long been used in campaigns by organizations ranging from Coca-Cola to the Salvation Army. But beer companies had better watch out when deploying good ol' St. Nick in ads.

The watchdog organization Center for Science in the Public Interest has filed a complaint with the Beer Institute--a trade association and lobbying group that publishes self-regulatory guidelines for beer marketers--about the "Running of the Santas" pub crawl. The complaint, filed Tuesday and forwarded to the Federal Trade Commission, alleges that beer companies' sponsorship of the event, as well as Web ads touting Santa-themed pub crawls in 25 cities, run afoul of Beer Institute rules prohibiting depictions of Santa Claus in marketing material.

"Santa Claus is a youth-oriented symbol," said George Hacker, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest's alcohol policies project. "It amounts to promoting alcohol beverages to young people -- to underage kids, to children in fact," he said.

The watchdog's complaint mentions beer brands owned by Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, and argues that sponsorship of the holiday-themed pub crawl is problematic, as is the use of beer brand logos in ads. "Even assuming such events are intended only for adults, they often take place (at least in part) outdoors and during early evening hours, exposing kids and families to the spectacle of a favorite childhood holiday icon being exploited to promote drinking," the complaint states. The Center for Science in the Public Interest is asking that the Beer Institute tell the companies to stop sponsoring the event.

The complaint specifically mentioned a MySpace page promoting the pub crawl in Atlanta. As of Tuesday afternoon, that page indicated that the Atlanta event was sponsored by Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light brand, and also contained an ad for Budweiser.

Anheuser-Busch distanced itself from that promotion on Tuesday. "This is an event involving our Atlanta wholesaler," the company said in an email to Online Media Daily. "The use of beer-branded logos should not have been permitted for this event, and the logos will be removed from all promotions."

A Web site promoting the event throughout the country, RunningoftheSantas.com, includes a link to a YouTube clip of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes as they dash through the streets partying -- and in some cases, apparently drinking. That page, which also contains links to the groups on Facebook and MySpace, names Coors Brewing Co. as a sponsor of the event. Some proceeds of the pub crawls are given to charity.

MillerCoors did not respond to a request for comment.

This complaint is not the first time the Center for Science in the Public Interest has said that Web promotions violate the Beer Institute's rules. In September, the organization alleged that a MillerCoors promotion for the caffeinated alcoholic drink Sparks on Heavy.com also violated a Beer Institute ban on ads with "language or images that are lewd and indecent." Those ads parodied HBO's "Entourage" by casting men with dwarfism as characters from the show, according to the group.

MillerCoors dropped that campaign shortly after the complaint was filed.