Does a brood of moustachioed men scare you? Make you jealous? Or make you feel safe? Would you want to eat a burger in a restaurant full of these burly men with personal crumb catchers? Are you one of these men?

If you are one of them, you’ve probably been to Grill’d a lot this month. As most Australians who know about men’s health charity month Movember are aware, burger chain Grill’d give away free burgers to people who raise money for the cause.

Jim Slattery, sponsorship manager for Movember says the partnership with Grill’d has been a huge success, and not just in raising money.

“It’s been incredible,” Slattery tells Marketing magazine. “It creates a little secret society. The Mo Bros come in and they talk to each other. It’s actually created a community around the person who donates his face and wears the hairy ribbon proud, they’re talking about men’s health and why they do it.”

Matt Bell, from Grill’d says the promotion is expensive for the company and their franchisees, but it’s worth it, both from a charity and marketing angle.

“Word of mouth is the big thing for us,” he tells Marketing magazine. “As soon as I say I work for Grill’d people say ‘oh you do Movember don’t you?’ So the recognition is huge out of it. As a small business we’re really punching above our wait.”

Bell says the program has changed over the five years Grill’d have been involved, in an effort to cope with demand and not damage the business.

“The first year we ran it, Simon, the founder of the business just wanted to support Movember so he said come in with a mustache and you’ll get a free burger.”

“ Now, we reach objectives with Movember with our involvement. We’ve had over 12,000 people register for our deal by getting $40 or more in donations.”

The promotion is also now only run for 10 days, down from 13 days in November last year, which was a decline from previous years. Bell says Grill’d gave out about 30 000 burgers last year, and 27 000 this year. Those falling numbers should probably be attributed to the smaller time frame, but it is always a threat that a gimmick like growing a mustache can quickly grow old. But Movember’s Slattery says the creative changes every year to keep the promotion fresh and a greater focus on talking about men’s health throughout the month is developing.

“It started out as a cool idea that could have died out and been a bit sad, but its really doing big things with men’s health, changing attitudes and raising a lot of money. So it’s a great thing.”