Of all alcohol advertisements – buxom blond twins, wisecracking frogs, a womanizing bull terrier nicknamed Spuds – Santa’s hindparts and an 18th-century French painting are perhaps the least improper.

In Maine, though, these icons on beer labels have been deemed dangerous for visual consumption. No judgment is passed on the consumption of the product, but heaven forbid a strolling child or moral sensibility is influenced or offended by its labeling.

On Friday, the Maine Civil Liberties Union sued the state for banning three beers because of labeling: one has Santa’s ample backside, another displays Eugene Delacroix’s painting “Liberty Leading the People” featuring a bare-chested woman, and the third depicts a nude woman reclining on a man’s lap.

The distributor, Shelton Brothers, is an old hand at controversy. It was embroiled in a similar lawsuit with New York and revels in scandal’s attention. Some great advertising has come from labeling controversies.

Like in 1998, when New York lost in federal court after banning a beer label featuring a frog displaying a middle finger. Last year Connecticut relented on Shelton Brothers’ holiday beers after banning two of them.

And on its Web site, the Belgian brewer featuring Delacroix’s painting gleefully recounts the 2000 expulsion of its beer in Missouri. The painting – arguably the French equivalent of Emanuel Leutze’s “George Washington Crossing the Delaware”- has been immortalized on French postage stamps and currency.

“Admittedly, (Liberty Leading the People) made a scandal in France in 1831,” the brewery states, “but for other reasons.” Three years after its Missouri ban, it adds, America faced the horrific sight of Janet Jackson’s partially-revealed breast during halftime of the Super Bowl. The sarcasm drips.

As it should, as the rush to conceal potentially-questionable images only causes them to be broadcast across the land. By squelching these labels, the state of Maine has indirectly put them before more adults and children.

The tobacco industry is learning the same lesson. After cigarette makers produced anti-smoking campaigns, researchers found the efforts had neutral or negative effects on children. Campaigns aimed at adults led to increased smoking among high-schoolers, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health in October.

It’s arguable that strict interpretation of beer labels could have a similar, unintended, result.

Commercial speech, such as beer labels, is not covered by the First Amendment, making the success of MCLU’s claim of rejecting the labels akin to censoring artwork doubtful. That debate is for the U.S. Supreme Court; Maine officials should consider the impact on Pine Tree State consumers.

Will Santa make Maine minors drink? Compared to the hundreds of other advertising campaigns, sponsorships and promotions pushing alcohol on the populace, the impact of Santa’s rotund southern hemisphere is likely minimal. The bare breasts of the others are G-rated for beer ads. Let retailers, not the state, decide if they’re appropriate.

The only impropriety of the labels is the free attention they’re getting from Maine’s shortsighted embargo.