The cow produces beer when the Happy Mondays play

The firm, which branded its beer the Cream of Manchester, closed its city centre site with the loss of 60 jobs in September 2004.

The T&G union said new adverts, which feature music by Manchester band Happy Mondays, were a slur.

Owners Interbrew said the Boddingtons brand was still Mancunian, even if the beer was no longer brewed there.

It pointed out that the cask ale was still made in the city, at the Hydes brewery in Moss Side.

The brand is Mancunian through and through because that's where the brand developed its personality and popularity Interbrew

The adverts are set in a remote cowshed in the Alps where a cow produces beer from its udder when the Happy Mondays' classic Step On is played.

Mike Thompson, the T&G's former convenor at the Strangeways site, said: "This is at best cynical and at worst a slur on our great city, its heritage and the Boddingtons workers.

"People have lost their livelihoods because of how this company has behaved. They will not be best pleased at what we can only see as pouring salt on the wounds."

Boddingtons beer had been brewed in the city for more than 220 years when Interbew called time on the Strangeways site.

The brand had cashed in on its Manchester links through a series of adverts, featuring gondolas on the Rochdale Canal and Mancunian model Melanie Sykes.

The Strangeways brewery closed in September 2004

It is now brewed in south Wales, Lancashire and Scotland.

A spokesperson from Interbrew UK said: "This is a case of damned if we do and damned if we don't.

"If we made no reference to Manchester and the North West in our advertising we would be accused of turning our backs on the city and region altogether.

"The closure of the Strangeways brewery was regrettable but necessary.