How Foster’s went from Melbourne’s most popular beer to a foreign ad gimmick
WHY don’t Melburnians drink Foster’s? Overseas it’s the beer synonymous with Australia but here it’s been out of favour for years. What happened to our once-favourite brew?
Melbourne
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ANYONE who can remember a time when Foster’s beer was popular in Melbourne might also be old enough to remember when milk was delivered on a horse and cart.
Since the late 20th Century, the answer to the question “Why don’t Melburnians drink Foster’s?” could be answered instantly dismissively with “it tastes bad”.
Slammed by those at home as an advertising gimmick that plays to faraway cultures’ romanticised view of Australia as a place where everyone’s suntanned and eaten by sharks, the beer itself cops consistently bad reviews from almost any Australian beer drinker who has the guts to request it at the bottle-o.
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Overseas the beer has become so synonymous with Australia, partly due to slogans such as “Foster’s, Australia for beer”, that in 2015 a New York man brought a law suit against a local distributor because he said he’d been misled to think the beer was brewed in Australia.
But the brew was also once the most popular beer in its home city, even more so than Victoria Bitter.
Before a hundred years of merger deals and foreign promotions, Foster’s held its own in the Melbourne market, even if it was created by two yank brothers.
But by the 1970s the once-loved brew fell out of favour locally and found refuge overseas.
CREATED BY YANKS BUT LOVED BY MELBURNIANS
Two American brothers, William and Ralph Foster, started selling bottles of Foster’s Lager in 1889 after arriving in Melbourne from New York in 1886.
After more than 20 years brewing the lager, a deal was struck between small breweries in Melbourne to, including Foster’s, Victoria, Carlton and Castlemaine to form the precursor to Carlton and United Breweries.
Foster’s Lager was originally brewed using a method involving sugar and had a lighter, less bitter taste than other beers in Melbourne.
By this time Victoria Bitter had been on the market for more than half a century, but Foster’s was still more popular and was considered the new Carlton and United Breweries’ premium product.
Over the ensuing 70 years, and after Foster’s cans were introduced in the 1950s, it would be almost eradicated from its home town but become a major commercial success overseas.
THE BARRY McKENZIE EFFECT
One cultural export to help Foster’s gain a foothold in the UK market was Barry Humphries.
The 1971 film The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, based on a comic strip written by Humphries, told how an locker Aussie bloke travels to the UK to live in an Earls Court flat with his mate.
The film featured Humphries in several roles including the protagonist’s Aunt Edna, who would later become his most popular character creation Dame Edna Everage.
McKenzie’s seemingly constant swilling of tinned Foster’s beers encouraged Brits to take it up.
Around the same time, however, Victoria Bitter was gaining popularity in Australia, largely due to TV ad campaigns with music in the style of The Magnificent Seven.
And a review of product positioning by CUB, partly driven by a growing preference for draught beer, saw Foster’s given a back seat in the Australian market.
But the beer’s popularity overseas was solidified by stereotype-packed TV ads of the 1980s featuring Paul Hogan.
Its popularity became so great that it rose to the second most drunk beer in the UK behind Carling.
AUSTRALIAN IN NAME ONLY
Foster’s in the UK is now brewed under licence in Manchester and Australian promotion of the beer has all but disappeared.
Despite advertising campaigns in the UK still featuring Aussie drinkers, and the Foster’s brand securing sponsorships with major events including the Australian Grand Prix, Australians have remained reluctant to take it up again.
Strange foreign variants to never see a bottle shop shelf in Australia include Foster’s Twist, which has a hint of lime and the Foster’s Radler with cloudy lemon.
Perhaps that would at least be received in Melbourne as a welcome but futile attempt to improve the taste.
With a growing market for craft beer in Melbourne and the dominance of Victoria Bitter and Carlton Draught as affordable beers, Foster’s sole hope of revival might be in the form of hipster irony.
But critics should keep in mind the brand’s long history and former status as Melbourne’s top beer, long before Hoges sold us out in London.
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