Energy drink billboard ad deemed unethical

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PRAGUE, Czech Republic, March 13 (UPI) -- Tecfood, the maker of energy drink Kamikaze, agreed to take down billboards with a picture of a sleeping Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

The ad features Schwarzenberg sleeping during the February presidential election and says people who drink Kamikaze will "last longer."

Tecfood has promised to take down the ads at the request of advertising guardian, Rada pro reklamu, which claimed the ad was unethical and exploitative, the Prague Daily Monitor reported.

Jaroslav Dostalík, of Tecfood, said the company would cooperate with the demand but wouldn't admit the ad was unethical.

Dostalík asked Rada pro reklamu to have "an open discussion on the Czech idea of advertising ethics, which has long ceased to meet global demands and the consumers' expectations."

When Schwarzenberg was asked if Tecfood should take down the billboards, he said: "No, it shouldn't. Seriously. They (the ad's critics) should all go to hell," the Daily Monitor reported