A new Holsten Pils advertising campaign has been lambasted for being offensive to women.
A poster advertisement for the German lager featuring a supposedly "unattractive" woman and the tag line "It's what's inside that counts" has been heavily criticised in an article that appeared in The Times on October 15.
Female journalist Alex Payne has claimed that Holsten is not using intelligent humour but instead sending a "very different - and very nasty - message".
"Holsten would probably say that this is charitable, that we should look beyond the physical appearance of the girl and see the personality beneath the surface," wrote Ms Payne. "But the message the image sends is different. It says 'Laugh at the ugly girl', and that's cruel, that's nasty."
A spokesperson for Holsten said: "The essence of this particular campaign was to encourage consumers to look for inner qualities - which in our case, is the quality of the liquid inside the bottle.
"The image of the couple in question is designed to support the reality of life - not all women are supermodels, and nor should they be. In this advertisement, our model is in fact the hero of the campaign with an adoring partner by her side.
"We sincerely apologise for any unintended upset caused by this execution and we are very grateful to those who have shared their thoughts with us."
The new Holsten ad campaign has been heavily criticised