Is Paris Hilton's Beer Ad Too Sexy? Brazil Demands Answers!

(MoneyWatch) 

• UPDATE: Truth in Advertising? Brazilian Beer Ad Actually Calls Paris Hilton a Slut
• Warning: Content at the end of this post may not be safe for work.

A beer ad featuring Paris Hilton is being "investigated" by Brazilian authorities to see if it is either too sexy or too degrading to women, Ad Age reports.

Conar, the Brazilian ad regulatory body, has rules that state "appeals to sensuality won't constitute the principal content of the message" and "advertising models won't be treated as sex objects."

In Hilton's ad for Devassa Bem Loura, she appears in a glass-walled apartment wearing a tiny black dress. Finding a Devassa in the fridge she proceeds to provocatively rub the cold can over her body. A crowd gathers to watch. The tagline: "Very Irreverent, Very Blonde, Very Devassa. Finally She's Arrived." (Devassa Bem Loura apparently means "very blonde" in Portugese.)

Conar's sudden enthusiasm for enforcing the letter of the law against is almost suspicious. There are apparently three different investigations going on simultaneously: The first was spurred by a consumer complaint, the second came from within Conar itself, and the third has come at the request of the Brazilian government's Secretariat for Womens' Affairs, which alleges that the content on Devassa's web site is sexist and disrespectful to women.

Clearly, this is a dream come true for Devassa, Hilton and their ad agency, Mood. They couldn't have asked for Conar to give them better free publicity. And while the ad and the web site are cheesy and silly, they're nothing compared to what can routinely be seen in Brazilian advertising, such as this print ad for Mia lingerie:

It's almost as if everything's going according to Devassa's plan ... or am I just too cynical?

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