Beer brand XXXX Gold acts over beach cricket claims

Tim Burrowes

January 14, 2009 1:07

Beer brand XXXX Gold has this afternoon said it is now investigating whether the organisers of its Beach Cricket event inadvertently breached the rules on marketing to children.

As Mumbrella reported earlier today, blogger Nathan Bush pointed out that prizes of XXXX Gold branded equipment were given to children taking part in competitions at the weekend’s beach cricket event. This appeared to be a breach of the Alcoholic Beverages Advertising Code, which states that “prizes given away in promotions associated with alcohol beverage companies will only be awarded to winners who are over the legal drinking age”.

This afternoon, Lauren O’Neil, corporate affairs executive for XXXX Gold’s parent company Lion Nathan, told Mumbrella: “We take responsible marketing and promotion extremely seriously, which is why we’re currently investigating this with the organisers – it may be that there’s a been a bit of confusion of whether this informal and ad hoc half time activity constitutes a ‘competition’ or ‘giveaway’ under the ABAC.”

She added: “That said, I have reinforced these guidelines today with the event organisers.”

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.