After numerous citizens complained about unethical alcohol marketing practices, both the State Veterinary and Food Administration of the Slovak Republic (SVPS SR) and the Slovak Advertising Standards Council (RPR) are conducting investigations of the advertisement campaign by the alcohol company GAS Família.
GAS Familia, an alcohol industry behemoth in the Eastern European region with production and distribution in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, launched the ads campaign in the beginning of August. The campaign uses billboards with five different images. Two of them contain pictures of young people with the caption: “When you are not only daddy’s princess” or “When you are not only mommy’s boy”.
A number of concerned Slovak citizens issued complaints about the unethical marketing, pointing out that the campaign targets children and youth and encourages them to consume alcohol. Furthermore, complaints addressed the problem that the controversial billboards are placed near schools and close to the Bratislava-based Centre for Treatment of Drug Dependencies.