Duff Beer Banned From Australia

8 September 2014 | 10:47 am | Staff Writer

D'oh

Iconic Springfieldian beverage Duff Beer has been banned from Australian bottle shops less than four months after it was launched in the country.

Since May, Aussie brew enthusiasts have been able to grab tinnies of Homer Simpson’s favourite beer from the Woolworths-owned Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores, but the halcyon days are coming to a close as, once again, young people ruin everything for everyone.

In a ruling from an Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code panel, Duff was found to be in breach of promotional guidelines that prevent alcoholic drinks from being aimed at children, meaning that, although BWS and Dan Murphy’s will be able to offload whatever stock they have on-hand, the beer is essentially off-limits moving forward.

“The association of The Simpsons with the product name and packaging is so strongly entrenched in Australian popular culture that the name and packaging will draw the attention of under-18-year-olds,” the panel expressed in its decision.

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“Measures to market the product without references to The Simpsons characters or images cannot be effective to overcome the strong and evident appeal of the product material to underage persons.”

This is the second time Duff has run into legal issues with being sold in Australia – an unofficial concoction brewed by Lion Nathan in the 1990s was pulled after Twentieth Century Fox sued for trademark infringement and won.

A spokeswoman for Woolworths said the supermarket and retail giant would comply with the ruling.

“We respect the panel’s adjudication and will discontinue the stock,” the spokeswoman said.