Stringent new restrictions on beer advertising could cripple the industry

Beer producers will be allowed to advertise their alcohol products on TV at night only, the Sejm decided yesterday. Under the new regulation, beer can be advertised only between 11 pm and 6 am. Parliament also decided that beer advertisements cannot refer to sex, leisure, entertainment, health or success in business. Beer products cannot be advertised on videocassettes, youth magazines, magazine covers, billboards, in cinemas or in theaters. The new bill also bans alcohol consumption on the street, public squares and in parks outside licensed consumption points. The changes also provide for employees to submit to alcohol tests upon the employer's demand. Polish beer producers welcomed the new regulations with little enthusiasm, asserting the bill will not reduce beer consumption, but will cause staff restructuring in breweries. "The introduction of the bill will hit mostly smaller breweries whose brands are not very strong," said Wlodzimierz Czausow, a spokesman for Okocim brewing group. (Prawo i Gospodarka, pp. 8,12; Rzeczpospolita, p.A5) J.K.