This month Ben ponders the recent judgement of the Advertising Standards Authority against the "Ram's World" Young's advertising.
Can a male sheep, or at least a poster of a chap wearing a head of a male sheep, standing next to a swimming pool in the company of a couple of bikini-clad ladies, imply sexual or social success?
That was the rather bizarre question on everyone's lips during what I can only presume was a drastically slow news week in January. It followed a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) which upheld a complaint against a poster campaign for Young's flagship Bitter.
The ASA decision, the biggest woolly quadruped controversy since genetically-modified Dolly hit the headlines, represents the first against a drinks company since advertising rules were tightened on October 1.
It claimed that by placing the ram-man-type-thing in laddish scenarios, Young's was implying its beer can make one look and feel pretty damn cool. And that, apparently, is naughty. October, it seems, has ushered in a new draconian dawn.
And having locked horns with Young's, the ASA director general Christopher Graham was anything but sheepish. In fact, he promised that this was the sign of things to come and that, to paraphrase his words a little, "the ASA ain't taking no doo-doo from the drinks brands no more".
Well, "baaaaaaaah humbug" is what I say. If the ASA is going to ban the Young's poster then, in the name of consistency, the knuckles of other drinks companies need rapping too.
I, for what it's worth, have a particular dislike for WKD adverts. A lot of people think they're really rather brilliant but they're either wrong, morons or both. As far as I can tell, the question being posed by the WKD advertising campaign is as follows: "Are you a moron? Do you like being mean and moronic to your moron mates? If so, why not get further in touch with your moronic side and drink WKD, a drink for morons."
The Young's ruling only took one complaint so I'm thinking about riding my high-horse into the ASA offices and doing the same to stick it to WKD. Not because I think the WKD ads imply social or sexual success but because I think they're not very good.
This brings me seamlessly onto the topic of beer adverts which, for the most part, are rubbish too. In the past, whether it was following the bear or reaching parts that other adverts can't reach, beer commercials were probably the best commercials in the world.
But lately, as I say, they've been rubbish. It's the blinkered pursuit of the "lad" that is the most bewildering. Not only an exercise in preaching to the converted but one that alienates and excludes women, the very people who could resurrect the embarrassing brewer's droop in sales.
What's more, the myopic masculine approach of the big brands is undermining generic efforts to promote beer. At a time when lots of brewers are carefully promoting beer and food and the cornucopia of flavours and aromas that beer possesses, a primetime advert showing a chubby comedian dive bombing simply blows all that good work out of the water.
The exceptions to the rule include the consistently excellent Stella Artois advertising, which is unisex in its appeal, and the latest "good things come to those who wait" Guinness commercial (a welcome return to form after a trio of dismal efforts).
But, for some time now, beer marketing has all the allure of a blind date with the pedant that snitched on Young's to the ASA. Here's hoping that, in a roundabout way, stricter advertising regulations will force brewers to box a little cleverer when it comes to promoting their beer.
Ben was awarded the title of Beer Writer of the year for 2004 by the British Guild of Beer Writers. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of The Publican.