There’s an ad doing the rounds on TV for Bundaberg Rum.
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It features actor Gyton Grantley talking about “the values that made us famous”.
These values include the obligatory one about mateship, because no one else apparently does superficial friendship better than Australians.
Then it switches to footage of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to show us that another of our values is “optimism”. Though what the mardi gras has to do with that I have no idea.
Seems “no one has a crack like us” either, using cyclist Anna Meares’ efforts to come back from a broken neck to win an Olympic medal.
Then, as the music swells, we’re told to celebrate these values with “our national nectar” – Bundaberg Rum.
And the ad ends with the tagline “unmistakably ours”. A curious thing to say about a spirit that’s owned by the British.
Yep, Bundy is actually owned by British distilling giant Diageo – who snapped up nearly 20 years ago.
But of course an ad that’s all “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” isn’t going to say “Pssst, it’s actually British-owned”.
Because they want drinkers to think they’re buying Aussie.
It’s a similar story with beer – many drinkers choose to shy away from craft beers, in favour of the mainstream brews because they think they’re true-blue Australian.
Nope – if you buy pretty much any mainstream beer some of your money ends up overseas.
The likes of VB, Carlton, Pure Blonde, Reschs Pilsner and Crown are ultimately owned by multinational brewer AB InBev.
James Squire, Boags, XXXX and Hahn – those guys’ parent company is Kirin (part of the Mitsubishi group of companies).
The message here is simple – if you really want to drink Australian, don’t believe the ads. Do some research instead.