Foster’s boss: Our Boony doll was guilty of normalising binge drinking

Tim Burrowes

October 29, 2009 1:24

The man in charge of Foster’s multimillion dollar sponsorship budget today said that the group’s award winning talking VB Boony Doll had “normalised binge drinking”.

Speaking at today’s national conference of Sponsorship Australasia, Chris Maxwell, national sponsorship manager for Fosters Group, called on the whole industry to work together to promote responsible alcohol marketing to fend off prohibitive legislation.

The talking Boony doll was a caricature of the cricketer David Boon. Along with a Beefy doll representing Ian Botham, the dolls had implanted sound chips which were triggered by TV coverage of the cricket.

One of Boon’s claims to notoriety was consuming 52 cans of beer on a flight from Sydney to London before the 1989 Ashes.

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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.