The rise and fall of Ben Ean Moselle and what it says about Australian society
In this crossposting from The Conversation, The University of Newcastle’s Julie McIntyre and John Germov consider why the strategy behind the first wine to be advertised on TV would fail in today’s world.
Do you remember Lindeman’s Ben Ean Moselle? This slim-bottled, white table wine was quaffed in great quantities in the 1970s. It played a leading role in democratising wine drinking in Australia as tastes began to diversify from an almost exclusively beer-drinking nation.
As we discuss in the Journal of Australian Studies, Ben Ean’s fortunes were aligned with tremendous social flux between the 1960s and 1980s. According to industry luminary Philip Laffer, Ben Ean was invented by accident in 1956. It boomed in the ’70s but began to decline in popularity in the mid-1980s as fine wine became more desirable. In 2009, the company that owned the Lindeman’s brand stopped making the wine.
In the 1970s, Ben Ean was the first wine to be advertised on TV. A breezy, comforting egalitarianism prevailed in the ad, which featured the Little River Band: “Who wants to journey on a gigantic yacht? … Who wants to be a millionaire? I don’t”.
Acclaimed author Peter Carey, spent much of his working life writing ads for Lindeman Wines. His ‘You Make Me Smile Dr.Lindeman’ spot is considered a classic. You should interview him about his advertising career.
Ben Ean wasn’t “the first wine to be advertised on TV”. Not even close.
My YouTube channel contains a 1970 ad for Leo Buring’s Rinegolde, and I also have a 1964 ad for Lindemans Porphyry Pearl.
Then there was the famous Orlando Coolibah “Where will you hide your Coolibah?” campaign – also before Ben Ean.
The National Film & Sound Archive put out a documentary many years ago titled “Australian Wine Uncorked” – this contained several early Australian TV adverts for various wines, many of them pre-dating Ben Ean by some years.