By Andy Young
Lion has hit back at claims made by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) about the Beer the Beautiful Truth campaign that the brewer is running.
FARE has launched its own retort to the campaign, called "Beer the Obvious Truth" in which it criticises Lion for trying to make "alcohol products seem healthier than they are".
However James Brindley, the managing director of Lion's beer business has responded to the criticisms, saying that the beautiful truth campaign is simply stating facts about beer.
"Contrary to what FARE asserts, this is not a health campaign," Brindley said.
"Beer the Beautiful Truth simply provides the facts people want to know about beer and busts common myths. For example, most people think beer is loaded with sugar when, in fact, our beers are typically 99.9 per cent sugar free.
"Our research shows that people want the facts about what they’re drinking and that’s what we’re providing, via a full nutritional information panel on the bottle, the outer packaging and via a dedicated website.
"It is highly ironic that FARE was established by Federal Parliament using extra tax collected from beer drinkers for a hike in the draft beer excise rate that never got parliamentary approval.
"I think beer lovers everywhere will be disappointed, once again, to see their money wasted on frivolous publicity stunts, instead of those funds being used to continue reducing harms caused by misuse," Brindley added.
Lion launched the Beer the Beautiful Truth campaign earlier this year after the company started putting nutritional information panels on its products. At the time Brindley told TheShout, that putting the nutritional panels on its packaging was "just the right thing to do".