September 14, 2000

11:00 AM

Fosters Beer's new siteand ad campaign is a ripoff/parody of another certain beer ad campaign. What's with the small country pride? Tired of the Americanization of the world? Or just the (American) corporatization of the globe?
posted by mathowie (20 comments total)

I am going to reprise my statement from an earlier thread: "The moment anything appears in a beer ad, it has already lost any true value it might have had, and is now only useful for kitsch".

...in other words, national pride is kitschy now (not evil, not holy, just kitschy). Take that to mean what you will, but I think it's true...
posted by aramaic at 11:13 AM on September 14, 2000

Nationalism is nothing new. We're just getting to the point where we're able to see nationalistic media from outside the nation.

It's a backlash from the trend towards globalisation... people don't always like seeing the defining lines between one nation and the next blurred. It makes maintain prejudices much more difficult when there's no "them" for our "us"

When enough people start grumbling about something loud enough, the media (my personal choice for the next "them" :-) take notice. By aligning themselves with a growing viewpoint, they associate a product with an ideology (which I'm sure we all realize) and when people align themselves with that ideology, they use any associations they're aware of to more firmly fit the mold they're jamming themselves into.

It's a fun little cycle.

To veer a bit, Foster's has identified itself as Australia's national beer for a very long time now, even when advertising to foreign countries. Well, at least when advertising to Canada. Does the "Australian For Beer" campaign from not too long ago ring any bells?

When I think Foster's, I think Australian, and honestly can't remember I time I haven't made that association. I also think big cans.
posted by cCranium at 11:19 AM on September 14, 2000

"national pride is kitschy now"

Politics of any kind seems to have become kitsch. Think about those awful Taco Bell commercials where the dog was cast as some kind of Che Guevera red revolutionary type. What the hell was up with that?
posted by wiremommy at 11:42 AM on September 14, 2000

When I think Fosters, I think "BE-A!"

Blatant ripoff. I thought it was interesting that the site tells you you can only view the commercial if you are accessing their site from Australia. When I read that I, of course, clicked on the Quicktime to see if I could see it. And, of course, I could. Did they think they could control access by making that statement?!
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 11:48 AM on September 14, 2000

BTW, Walzing Matilda is my favorite national anthem, next to Oh Canada.

And can anyone tell me why the national colors of Australia are green and yellow (if you will note, those are not the colors of their flag)?
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 11:52 AM on September 14, 2000

"They're trying to sell beer!"
Uhh, that was sort of the point re: kitsch etc.
posted by aramaic at 12:27 PM on September 14, 2000

Walzing Matilda is my favorite national anthem, next to Oh Canada.

You obviously missed "Advance Australia Fair" winning the ballot to replace "God Save the Queen". Have a listen when the Australians take far too many swimming gold medals...

And yeah, the Fosters == Australian has been running since the 80s, when Paul Hogan advertised it in the UK. (And this was before Crocodile Dundee, too.)

Then again, both Fosters and Molson are brewed in Burton-upon-Trent under licence here.
posted by holgate at 2:16 PM on September 14, 2000

When I think Foster's, I think Australian, and honestly can't remember I time I haven't made that association.

That's really strange because Fosters is actually the LEAST popular beer in Australia. You never see people buying it in the stores or drinking it at parties. It's far more popular in London than it is in Sydney or Melbourne.

Oh and one more thing, Matt, I can't speak for the other 19 million Australians here, however, I personally am not in the slightest bothered by Americanization of our culture. What really pisses me off is the devaluation of the Australian dollar against the Greenback which means when I travel internationally, my hard earned money is not worth the paper it is printed on!!!

posted by murray_kester at 3:40 PM on September 14, 2000

Waltzing Matilda, is not Australia's national anthem, but its favorite song. There's something too antiestablishment about it to make it the anthem, instead there's the very lame "Advance Australia Fair", revised to remove sexist language ;-j

There have been many attempts to get the Green and Gold onto Australia's flag, but it's never been successful, let's face it the tricolor, red white and blue works on a lot of flags. The other reason is because Autralians don't like to change anything ever, see the result of the republic referendum. Give green and gold back to Brazil, I say.

Foster's Beeya may be associated with Australia for most British and Americans, but it is not very popular in Australia (except maybe in Chinatown, go figure). Victoria Bitter from the same company is very popular, although it's not exactly a good beer either. If you want to taste a decent Australian beer, try either Cascade from Tasmania or Cooper's ale from South Australia, if you can find them.
cheers
posted by lagado at 3:59 PM on September 14, 2000

Small country? ;)

Is true what has been said -- nobody here drinks fosters.

And Waltzing Matilda isn't our national anthem for one good reason -- who wants a song about a cowardly bum who steals a sheep and then drowns himself to avoid being arrested?

Says a lot about the country, no? :)
posted by cheaily at 4:08 PM on September 14, 2000

Waltzing Matilda Oz's favourite song? Bah! Listening to the top forty, it's either something by Britney Spears or Mandy "candy" Moore.
Australia. As Aussie as Chicago.
And I agree about the dollar. We're calling off our trip to the US until the greenback crashes and burns in the inevitable wall street plummet. Then we'll walk all over you wankers.
"Wankers" or course, being a term of endearment in Austaaliya [keeps straight face].
posted by Neale at 4:38 PM on September 14, 2000

"Wankers" or course, being a term of endearment in Austaaliya [keeps straight face].

just call us "septics" and have done with it, alright?

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 4:55 PM on September 14, 2000

Actually, Molson's Breweries is 40% owned by Fosters Brewing Group, the same percentage as held by the parent Molson's Companies. (The other 20% is held by Miller.) So it's sort of "in the family" for one to play off the other's ads.
posted by dhartung at 5:07 PM on September 14, 2000

All right, "Matilida" may not be your personal favorite, mine neither. You won't find songs like that on the top 40, but that doesn't mean that people don't sing it...a lot.

Speaking of cowardly bums stealing things, the swagman stole the sheep from a squatter, who had already stolen the land (without government permission) on which to run his sheep. He and descendents (the so called squatocracy) got away with it and still run the stock exchange and the economy in Australia.

Of course, the whole lot was stolen from the aboriginals, who were massacred in huge numbers. An even greater crime of theft.
posted by lagado at 6:16 PM on September 14, 2000

I haven't seen the tv commercial, but I did see a bus shelter ad with I believe it's called a prawn, not a shrimp this morning and it made me grin.

I think you’ll find that increasing Americanistion does bother most Australians to one degree or another. It’s a large issue to me, though I’m honest enough to admit that my pov is inconsistent. I get more worked up about some aspects of it than others.

I should stress that it’s not an anti-Americanism -- I’ve lived there, nearly married one, etc -- but a dislike of the way American-based companies tend to come into local markets and forcibly stamp the American culture over the local one. There’s also been more than one case of Big American Monolith coming in, throwing forty or fifty million around, and driving out the local, established business(es).

It’s not all one-sided. Sometimes we accept the American product with open arms and never give a through to the culture and history we’re throwing away. I wrote back in February about visiting a new outdoors shopping / entertainment area here in Sydney and finding it and almost identical to “The Block”, an outdoor shopping / entertainment area in Los Angeles. It’s a case in which the architects have clearly been influenced by the California style at the expense of the local one, and that’s disturbing.

If I wanted a global culture I’d have never ventured outside my own front door.

posted by Georgina at 6:20 PM on September 14, 2000

I apologize for my gaffe at thinking Waltzing Matilda was Oz's national anthem.

...but a dislike of the way American-based companies tend to come into local markets and forcibly stamp the American culture over the local one.

Happens here in the States too. Ask any Ma&Pa coffee house about Starbucks.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 6:12 AM on September 15, 2000

...or a small town main street about Wal mart.
posted by norm at 6:39 AM on September 15, 2000

"finding it and almost identical to 'The Block', an outdoor shopping / entertainment area in Los Angeles"

Can I just apologize now for someone copying that monstrosity and sending it over to Australia? I can't believe someone would deem it worth copying, it's hideous.
posted by mathowie at 8:40 AM on September 15, 2000

Of course it's a prawn. The thought of "shrimp cocktail" crisps is horrific ;)
posted by holgate at 9:24 AM on September 15, 2000