Australia: Foster's denies accusations made by Lion Nathan regarding its cricket tournament ambush marketing

Foster's Australia was forced to defend October 19 comments made last week that a beach cricket tournament staged by its chief rival, Lion Nathan, ambushed its Ashes sponsorship, The Sydney Morning Herald posted October 19.

Last week Foster's corporate affairs head Geoff Donohue said on the Herald's front page that the ad campaign to promote the XXXX Gold tournament was little more than ambush marketing. Mr Donohue was also reported as saying that Foster's thought "ambush marketing is fairly un-Australian".

But Lion accused October 18 Foster's - a major sponsor of cricket - of hypocrisy after it emerged that Foster's had staged ambush sales promotions campaigns for Carlton Draught at Victoria's racing carnival two years ago and for Victoria Bitter with John Eales at the 2003 Rugby World Cup, sponsored by Toohey's New and Heineken respectively.

Lion Nathan spokesman James Tait said that as people were unlikely to confuse beach cricket with the international tournament, its activities could not be considered ambush marketing.

"You'd need to ask Foster's how they can use the term in relation to our activity," he said. "In general terms it's our observation that the term un-Australian is wheeled out when the person has no logical or compelling argument to support their case and we think most people are wise to this kind of behaviour."

Ben Lyttle, head of planning and strategy at Singleton Ogilvy & Mather, which regularly tracks how being Australian is perceived, warned corporates to beware of bandying around the term un-Australian.

"There isn't a dictionary definition of the word but I don't think an ambush marketing campaign constitutes an attack on Australian values," he said. "If anything, having a bit of fun and having a fair go is very Australian. Most people would say [to companies] 'Get your hands off it'."

Foster's said its campaigns were old and minor compared to the investment XXXX Gold was making in beach cricket. Director, mainstream beer, Matt Keen, said: "'It's apparent that our competitor is looking to generate some cheap publicity for its promotion. Clearly the Ashes is the biggest thing in cricket this summer and they are looking for a piece of the action."

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