Few words in a TV ad could have become more of a nightmare for Zagorka brewery as eight people are now suing the company for an alleged sexist advertisement. A woman from Plovdiv started the campaign by submitting a claim to court, protesting a Zagorka ad that she felt treated women as objects on par with beer and cars.

Velichka Hristeva, the first claimant, will have her first day in court on September 12, announced her lawyer, Svetlana Isaeva, on Friday.

The claim was submitted on the grounds of some of the provisions of the Consumers' Protection Act, which state that each person that has a legal interest could file a complaint and ask for an ad to be forbidden if it is considered misleading or dishonest, and for the damages this person suffered because of such an advert. The same act also provides that any ad containing elements of discrimination regarding sex, race, religion, nationality, political views, age, physical or mental disabilities, or which offends human dignity, is dishonest. As far as discrimination with regards to sex, Hristeva had a problem with these words in the Zagorka ad: "What does a man need? A new car, a nice woman and a good beer."

Hristeva claimed 100,000 leva and promised that if she won the case she would organize a beer festival for her friends and would donate the rest of the money to an orphanage.

Meanwhile, the media reported on Monday that seven more claims have been submitted to the court against Zagorka and the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) that broadcasted the advert. Hristeva's claim was followed by similar claims from a lawyer from Plovdiv, the local Customers Centre for Information and Research and, more recently, by Animus Association (an organization that deals with violence against women), among others.

The court has set dates for the proceedings of all the cases. The BNT was ordered to provide the full recording of the ad, and the claimants will have to prove that they were directly or indirectly damaged by the advert. The National Council for Radio and Television (NCRT) was considering last week whether to fine the BNT, but it decided against it. The NCRT promised on Friday that it would take a special stand on the Zagorka case.

Zagorka beer is made by Zagorka Brewery, based in the town of Stara Zagora in southeast Bulgaria. The former state-owned beer plant was privatized in 1994, when the Dutch producer Heineken and the Greek company Haelenic Bottling bought an 80 per cent share. Zagorka is the first and only brewery in Bulgaria that was granted the international standard ISO 9002 for management and control of quality. The company holds 25 per cent of the beer market in the country.