MillerCoors is backing off its sponsorship of the "world's naughtiest pub crawl" -- a drinking party with participants dressed as Santa Claus -- after critics charged that the event violated a voluntary industry advertising code, the Boston Herald reported Dec. 13.

The "Running of the Santas" event takes Santa-suit wearing pub crawlers from bar to bar throughout major cities in the U.S. Boston's pub crawl took place Saturday, drawing crowds dressed as St. Nick. The money raised from the event is slated to help a local charity fight pediatric cancer.

However, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), an alcohol industry critic, said MillerCoors violated the Beer Institute's voluntary advertising and marketing code, which explicitly forbids using Santa to market beer. "Clothing a children's symbol in beer may not be the message we want to send to children in this country," said George Hacker of CSPI's alcohol policies project.

Join Together teamed up with CSPI to elicit over 2,000 complaints to the Beer Institute and Federal Trade Commission over the promotion, which was advertised with images of soused Santas.

"Given the concerns raised by CSPI, we doubt the use of Santa costumes will be part of similar sponsorships in the future," MillerCoors spokesman Julian Green said in a statement. "While Coors Light has supported the Running of the Santas charity event, the poster with individuals in Santa costumes is something we did not intend as being controversial or violating the advertising code since they were of legal drinking age and not interacting with young people."

"Santa Claus is a treasured icon for children," Eric Helmuth, a spokesman for Join Together, told the Boston Herald on Dec. 12. "We're not trying to be killjoys. We're just asking MillerCoors and its wholesalers to be responsible."

Previously, Anheuser-Busch distanced itself from a Bud Light sponsored "Santa Pub Crawl" in Atlanta in response to criticism from CSPI.