18 Sep 2008

Pub's no underwear day to be investigated

4:10 pm on 18 September 2008

An Australian pub offering free drinks to women who remove their underwear and display it in public will be investigated by alcohol licencing regulators.

The Saint Hotel in Melbourne has promised a "No Undie Sundie" event this weekend, where women who remove their underwear and hang it above the bar will receive A$50 worth of free drinks.

Women who flash their bras and underwear to staff also get free drinks, the pub said, in a promotion that women's groups said was "almost an invitation to sexual assault".

"On the face of it, it looks like an inappropriate liquor promotion and we will be investigating with a view to banning it," Liquor Licensing Victoria director Sue Maclellan told the Herald Sun newspaper.

On its website the Saint describes itself as "the home of Melbourne's fashionable set", but the pub attracted the ire of regulators in June after hiring a dwarf to pour free alcohol down patrons' throats.

Posters for the no undies day event showed singer Britney Spears partially exposed and exiting a car in a scene local Mayor Janet Cribbes said was "bordering on being pornographic".

The pub's managers were not answering phone calls on Thursday.