An Australian bar has got its knickers in a twist over a promotion where it offered free drinks to women who removed their underwear.

The Saint Hotel in St Kilda, a beachside suburb of Melbourne, withdrew the ‘No Undie Sundie’ advertising campaign after the director of Liquor Licensing in Victoria banned the promotion, which has been branded sexist, tasteless and encouraging binge drinking.

The hotel now faces fines of over £5,500 ($AU13,000) if it goes ahead with the event, which was to be held this Sunday.

Advertisements promoting the event featured a paparazzi photo of a partially exposed Britney Spears – the US pop singer who was famously photographed wearing no knickers – getting out of a car.

The promotion offered free champagne for the first 100 women through the door, a drink card worth £21 (AU$50 which would buy the equivalent of around five cocktails) if women hung their knickers over the bar, and free drinks for women who flashed their underwear or bra at bar staff.

The ‘No Undie Sundie’ event is not the first time The Saint has landed itself in hot water. In June another promotion, featuring a semi-naked dwarf pouring free alcohol down the throats of drinkers, was also withdrawn after it provoked outrage. The complainants appeared less concerned about the presence of the half naked dwarf in the ad than the danger that it might promote binge drinking

The undie-free advertisement has caused outrage among the local authorities and anti-sexism campaigners.

Even the state’s leaders have weighed in. Acting Victorian Premier Rob Hulls described the hotel’s promotion as “inappropriate''.

“In this day and age, in 2008, to be promoting the drinking of alcohol along those lines, I just think is part of a bygone era,” Mr Hulls said.

The head of the Australian Hotels Association Bill Healey said it was “sexist” and undermined the current National Alcohol Strategy’s aim of promoting a responsible drinking culture in Australia.

“Our goal is to make mainstream hotels community meeting places which are family friendly,” Mr Healey told the Times Online.

“This sort of behaviour, apart form being very tacky and sexist, is certainly inconsistent with the sort of behaviour that we would recommend.

“And in the current climate where we’re trying to make people drink responsibility, we don’t think this helps our cause.’’

The Saint Hotel, on trendy Fitzroy St in St Kilda, is housed in a former bank office and was a typical ‘old man’s pub’ until it was renovated a few years ago to keep up with the gentrification of the seaside suburb.

St Kilda, a former red light district filled with prostitutes and drug addicts, is now one of Melbourne’s trendiest and most diverse postcodes with middle class families living alongside long-term residents including bohemian artists and musicians.

As a tourist destination which is becoming increasingly gentrified, there is tough competition among the hotels and bars in St Kilda. Many try to out-do each other with cool and quirky events. One hosts a rock triva quiz which is broadcast on TV while others boast karaoke nights.

While encouraging patrons to take off their clothes is not common in pubs in Australia’s capital cities, scantily clad bartenders and wet t-shirt competitions among patrons are popular in other parts of the county, specifically in the West Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie.

One of Kalgoorlie’s most famous pubs is the Exchange Hotel, which boasts of having "the most beautiful Skimpy Barmaids"- women who pull beers dressed only in lingerie and sometimes not even that much.

The Saint Hotel manager did not return calls today.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?