Foster's–Australian for beer.

Foster’s Lager was marketed internationally—especially in the UK and US—as a quintessentially Australian beer, often using broad “Aussie” stereotypes and catchphrases. The line “Foster’s—Australian for beer” is best understood as an advertising slogan rather than a literary aphorism: it compresses national identity into a simple equivalence (“Australian” = “beer”) to make the brand feel like the default, authentic choice. Because such taglines were typically created by advertising agencies and circulated via television, print, and outdoor campaigns, they are frequently repeated without attribution and end up labeled “Anonymous” in quotation collections.

The slogan works by playful pseudo-translation: it pretends that in Australian English the word for “beer” is “Foster’s,” turning a brand name into a supposed common noun. Its humor depends on exaggeration and cultural shorthand, implying that beer is central to Australian identity and that Foster’s embodies that identity. As a piece of branding, it also aims to erase competitors by presenting the product as the generic category itself. Read critically, it reflects how advertising commodifies national culture—reducing a complex place and people to a single consumable emblem.

Foster’s. Australian for beer.
Foster’s Lager—Australian for beer.
Foster’s: Australian for beer.