No field seems untouched by the recession. Economic downturn has knelt the world’s oldest business: prostitution. The flat-rate sex promotions by brothel owners in a bid to revive trade have started a controversy in Germany where prostitution is legal and generally well-tolerated. The conservatives have expressed their disgust at the innovation. They deem it ‘outrageous violation of human dignity and an immoral development which is anti-society’. Is it so, particularly in a country where such promotions are not forbidden by law?