Victoria Bitter thongs – the ‘ultimate Aussie fashion accessory’ – released ahead of Australia Day
Victoria Bitter has teamed up with Thongs – the Australian-made thongs brand – to release the “ultimate fashion accessory for the Australia Day long weekend”: a pair of VB branded thongs.
Featuring the VB colours and branding, and straps that read, “A hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer”, the thongs are selling for $45 through the VB merchandise store.
The thongs come with a 12-month no blow-outs guarantee
Like all pairs of Thongs, they come with a 12-month ‘no blow-outs’ guarantee, and are made for “Aussie conditions” – from a game of frisbee to a pub session – according to the brand.
“Working with VB, a brand synonymous with hard working Australians, was easy,” Scott Jungwirth, Thongs Australia’s director, said.
“As well as being iconic, our main inspiration was creating thongs that were tough. We were sick of our old ones breaking all the time.”
VB’s associate director, Hugh Jellie, added they’re the “perfect accessory for the Australian summer”.
“And the fact that Thongs are proudly manufactured in Australia, supporting hard-working Aussies, made them the perfect partner for us,” he said.
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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$45 for a pair of thongs?? – that’s a bloody outrage, it is! Even Havaianas don’t cost that much.
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Spot on VB lover. If that’s what it costs to buy a pair that are “proudly manufactured in Australia”, I’ll stick with the 15 pairs of Big W thongs made in a Bangaldeshi sweatshop for that amount. You are right, it is an outrage!
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Love this as a brand extension – given a case of VB is $55 I have no doubt hard core fans will have no issue spending $45
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I just don’t get why they didn’t include a free pair with a case – or $5 tops with said case. They ran a similar campaign like 10 years ago, and that was also around the time of the talking Boony, Warnie, etc dolls – that was a gold campaign.
This is a deadset rort.
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So despite attempting to resuscitate their working class credibility, the clueless marketing drones are still pandering to gullible *aspiring* or ‘ironic’ types who won’t baulk at paying $45 not just for thongs, but to spend giving free advertising to Carlton & United Breweries. Got it.
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SMH. This industry loves a moan.
If CUB went to a cheap and cheerful foreign brand they’d get pilloried for not being Australian (heaven forbid they actually went to a “Bangladeshi sweatshop”), so they find a local brand to partner with and get accused of being too expensive. You can’t have you cake and eat it.
If anyone has a look at the Thongs site they’d see that most of their thongs cost $40-$45 – that’s just the price.
How many pairs of these would VB need to sell to materially impact their bottom line? This isn’t a revenue generator. It is a nice tactical brand play. Is it as good as the Boony doll – no – but should we all immediately get on our high horses about this one – absolutely not.
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You are missing the point of the complaints and are confusing drinkers of Stella Artois with the VB drinking target audience.
Maybe your beer snobs would be outraged if the thongs weren’t made of organically grown and grain fed rubber (though I don’t know why they didn’t make these thongs out of hemp!) but not one VB drinker would complain if they sourced a cheap overseas made thong. Even if that thong fell apart after three months, most VB drinkers would rather pay $5 for a pair that got them through summer.
Similarly, I’d hazard a guess that not one VB drinker would ever “look at the Thongs site to see that most of their thongs cost $40-$45” and, if any did, would in no way entertain the idea of paying that much.
PS. The cake was delicious!
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