A series of beer adverts have divided opinion by showing men in a maternity-style photoshoot cradling their "beer bellies".
The adverts, created for German beer Bergedorfer Bier, appear alongside the tagline "brewed with love".
While some have called the images "hilarious", others have raised concerns that they promote drinking to an unhealthy level.
“While these adverts are clearly intended as a bit of fun, they raise some fairly serious issues around the potential health impact of alcohol consumption," Dr Nitin Shori, medical director of the Pharmacy2U Online Doctor told The Huffington Post UK.
“The irony is that men who consume alcohol can actually develop health problems relating to reproduction, including erectile dysfunction and infertility."
Dr Shori added that beer bellies occur because most alcoholic drinks are packed with "empty" calories that offer no real nutritional value but prompt weight gain.
“Alcohol can also be a contributing factor in other health conditions, including certain cancers, liver cirrhosis, heart attacks and stroke," he said.
"Excessive alcohol consumption can contribute to a sedentary lifestyle that leads to other health problems, including heart disease."
He added: "The Government recently amended its advice to state that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, while drinking alcohol during pregnancy has been shown to affect foetal development.
“It is never a bad idea to reduce alcohol consumption and it’s something a GP can help you with."
According to Drinkaware, someone drinking five pints of lager each week – the equivalent of 260 pints per year – consumes the same amount of calories as someone who gets through 221 doughnuts in a year.
With seven calories per gram, there are almost the same amount of calories in alcohol as pure fat, so the charity states "it’s no wonder then that drinking can lead to extra weight being put on around the middle".
It advises sticking to the low risk alcohol unit guidelines of not regularly drinking more than 14 units per week and upping the amount of exercise you do to help reduce your beer belly.
"To burn off the 180 calories you’d find in an average pint of lager (4% ABV) a typical man would have to spend: 13 minutes running on the treadmill or playing football; 15 minutes cycling or 20 minutes swimming or half an hour on the golf course," the website states.
For more advice on how to reduce your beer belly, download the Drinkaware app.
The Huffington Post UK has contacted Jung Von Matt, who made the adds, and Bergedorfer Bier for comment, but has yet to hear back at the time of publication.
