A social media onslaught slamming Great Northern as ‘woke’ following a campaign to raise money for national parks has been leapt on by right-wing media outlets, writes John Turnbull.
EARLY LAST WEEK, Great Northern announced a partnership with the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife (FNPW) called ‘Outdoors for a Cause’. The stated aim of the partnership was to raise funds to buy private land and donate it to national parks.
Less than 48 hours later, the campaign had been “paused” following a backlash against the brand going “woke”, the result of a post on a Facebook page with less than 2,000 reactions.
One week later, Carlton and United Breweries CEO Danny Celoni announced he was stepping down from his role in the wake of the public backlash to the promotion.
What happened?
Some background
For those who prefer a more sophisticated beverage (or choose not to drink at all), Great Northern was launched back in 2010 by international beer giant Asahi, under their wholly-owned subsidiary Carlton and United Breweries. Riding a wave of mid-strength popularity, Great Northern quickly built market share through a series of pourage rights partnerships, replacing previous market leader, XXXX Gold.
These partnerships meant that the first time most Aussies tried Great Northern, it was probably in an airport or at a cricket match, consumed out of lack of selection rather than positive choice.
Sold in a 30-can slab, Great Northern’s logo features a rampant marlin, with advertising featuring real Aussie men driving real 4WDs through real Australian bush, all the while selling most of their product to the MAFS-viewing masses while they wait for the next flight to Bali.
From a seasoned beer drinker’s perspective (and to steal a line from Monty Python), Great Northern is like making love in a canoe; it’s fucking close to water.
Captain of the Titanic
While we have a reputation as beer-swilling yobs, consumption of the amber fluid among Aussies continues to fall, particularly among younger generations.
Data from Roy Morgan shows that less than one-third of Aussies have had a beer in the last four weeks, a 23% drop in pre-pandemic consumption levels. This isn’t a recent trend, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics pointing out back in 2019 that beer went from making up almost three-quarters (73.5%) of all alcohol consumed in 1967-68 to 39.0% in 2017-18.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), driven by a combination of health awareness and financial constraints, younger Australians are also less likely to drink alcohol than older generations, with consumption by under-18s dropping by half since 2001.
Tiny campaign, odd fit
Vowing to match donations of up to $200,000 and planned to run from 15 January to 31 March, this campaign is a drop in the bucket in terms of Great Northern’s marketing budget, which runs into the millions each year.
While the Great Northern brand is not specifically targeted at Aussies who love boating, camping and fishing (although they do regularly partner with BCF), it does use outback iconography extensively in its advertising. A slab of cans works better than a case of stubbies on corrugated roads and the brand embraces its Queensland origins every chance it gets.
Brand image aside, the question must be raised whether Great Northern drinkers care about the environment. A recent global poll showed that Australians are among the most sceptical people in the world about climate change being caused by humans.
According to The Guardian:
‘Just 60% of Australians accept that climate disruption is human-caused, a fall of six percentage points from the previous poll 18 months earlier and well behind the global average of 73%, according to the results from French polling company Elabe.’
Before we go any further, it’s worth pointing out that the stated aim of this partnership was to buy private land (land that 4WD enthusiasts are currently unable to drive on) and donate it to national parks (still land that 4WD enthusiasts are unable to drive on).
The mainstream media pile-on
The Facebook page that kicked off the outrage is called 4wd TV, a group with 1.8 million followers that usually posts about outdoor driving gear and good places to go off-road.
On 27 January, the group uploaded a post bringing attention to the Great Northern/National Parks partnership, claiming that the campaign aimed to get 4-wheel drivers locked out of forests. The post (currently liked by 2,200 people, or 0.1% of the page’s followers) said that they wanted to ‘send an earth-shattering message to corporate Australia of “go woke, go broke”’.
Later the same day, the group encouraged users to take the Kid Rock approach and run over a slab of Great Northern with their 4WD. I have always considered this approach infantile, as you are first paying for the beer before you run over and/or shoot it.
In the usual run of things, these posts may have gone unnoticed, but the mainstream media (particularly right-leaning publications) leapt on the bait.
News.com called Aussies to: ‘“Boycott”: Aussie beer company Great Northern slammed over “woke” campaign move.’
Yahoo reported: ‘Great Northern cancels national park campaign after backlash from 4WD enthusiasts.’
Daily Mail Australia gleefully declared: ‘A popular beer company announced they would donate money to charity. The unexpected backlash has forced them to make a humiliating decision.’
The talking heads from breakfast TV and Sky News jumped on the bandwagon, and the voice of a passionate few was amplified to the nation.
The response from Great Northern marketing chief Zac Gelman was circumspect:
Great Northern’s Outdoors for a Cause campaign was yesterday paused following feedback from our passionate drinkers. Our donation to the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife will now not be used to buy land to add to national parks.
Our donation will instead be used for the preservation of endangered species.
The end of woke partnerships?
There is little doubt that the world is experiencing a rise in conservative sentiment, from the rise of the AfD in Germany to the Orwellian nightmare currently going on in the United States.
When asked about whether we care about the environment, between 70% and 95% of Aussies say we do (the polls vary wildly), but recent data from Monash University shows that less than half (42%) of Australians are willing to pay more for sustainable choices.
When budgets get tight, ideals take a back seat to practicality.
So does this mean the age of brands doing good in the world is over?
Of course not. But the partnership has to make sense, both in terms of brand image and the audience that the brand is trying to reach. A partnership with the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife makes perfect sense for established do-gooder (yet comparatively niche) brands like Kathmandu or Who Gives a Crap; perhaps less so for a mass appeal bland (sorry, brand) that is trying to be all things to all people.
John Turnbull is a cultural consultant with over a dozen years of experience connecting with and understanding diverse Australian communities.
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