1988 Castlemaine xxxx commercial from the UK and Ireland.

The XXXX brand was launched in 1924 by then Castlemaine Brewers; named after the town of Castlemaine, Victoria where the company was born in 1857, the famous yellow and red label still bears this town’s name. XXXX has been brewed in the Castlemaine Perkins Milton Brewery since its introduction, and has featured an artist’s sketch (later very stylised) of this brewery on the label of beer bottles and cans. In the 1950s the prominent ‘XXXX’ illuminated sign was erected on the brewery.

XXXX’s mascot is Mr Fourex – a jovial cartoon man in a suit with a boater hat, who features on the City side of the Fourex Brewery at Milton and is to be re-introduced into advertising in the near future for the first time since 1967. Mr Fourex is thought to be modeled after a gentleman by the name of Paddy Fitzgerald. However, Mr Fourex may have been around long before Paddy became a force at the brewery. A second theory is that the cartoon is modelled on a well-known dwarf who sold newspapers in the inner city suburb of Fortitude Valley in the late 1920s. The true identity for the inspiration behind the cartoon remains a mystery.

The second major campaign was launched in the early 1980s in the North Queensland area after the general manager of ‘XXXX’ Pat Holmboe at the time heard of the locally famous Clinton Howe, a council road worker, being able to consume a very high quantity of the beer in a short time (approx. 3L in 1 minute or 3/4 gal.). The company was forced to close the campaign within the first few day s of T.V. advertising following government pressure.

A popular advertisement campaign from the early 1990s featured the tagline “Australians wouldn’t give a XXXX for anything else.”

Most beers under the XXXX label are sold in Australia as 375 ml cans (tinnies), 375 ml bottles (stubbies), 750 ml bottles (tallies or long necks) and 250 ml bottles (throwdown), on tap (in most Queensland pubs but also to a lesser extent throughout the rest of Australia) and all bottles have twist top lids. Underneath the twist top lids there are trivia questions.

XXXX is unique amongst Australian beers in that it is still being served from wooden barrels at the Breakfast Creek Hotel in Newstead, Queensland. Whilst not cask-conditioned, as in the case of British real ale, the beer is nevertheless unpasteurised and delivered by gravity and is described as having a fresher and smoother taste than the regular ‘keg’ variety.

XXXX’s labels generally feature a depiction of the Milton Brewery alongside the Ipswich railway line, presently with a Citytrain EMU in the foreground with the existing extensive railway fencing omitted. Prior labels had steam engines and diesels when those locomotives were more regularly seen in Brisbane.

XXXX is the major sponsor of many sporting events and clubs, including the Queensland Maroons in the State of Origin. XXXX Gold is also a sponsor of the QLD Bulls and the QLD, SA, ACT & NT Cricket Associations. XXXX Gold also sponsors the Australian V8 Supercars Championship Series.

On September 27, 2006, XXXX launched the sponsorship of the XXXX Gold Beach Cricket Tri-Nations 2007 series. The series ran from January – February 2007. The series involved cricketing legends from Australia such as Allan Border, England including Graham Gooch and West Indies including Courtney Walsh and Sir Viv Richards.

Info taken from Wikipedia