A respected military veteran and historian has declared Anzac Day is now "for sale" and is being taken advantage of by pubs, confectionary outlets and even plastic surgeons.

The turnout at services across Australia for Anzac Day's 99th anniversary on Friday, is expected to be the biggest yet.

But James Brown, a retired captain who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, says the growing interest is benefiting pubs and other businesses rather than veterans.

"I think it has become for sale," Mr Brown said.

"There are companies that have applied to [the Department of] Veterans' Affairs to use the word Anzac to sell ice-creams.

"There's certainly a lot of people using it to get people in the door on Anzac Day to buy drinks at their pubs.

"So we've got to be really careful about cheapening what is our most sacred national day and most sacred national memory."

Like many others, Melbourne restaurant Vue De Monde has designed an Anzac eve mixology event which includes drinks called the Light Horse Punch and The Spirit of The Anzacs.

"There's no doubt that some of these companies and the way they're using the Anzac tradition are completely belittling the tradition of service and the horrors of war," Mr Brown said.

"I mean offering a Light Horse Punch cocktail the day before Anzac Day doesn't really show that you're taking military service seriously."

But Vue De Monde head chef Chris Bonello has a different view.

"Anzac Day is one of the most important days that Australians celebrate and we just thought, 'right, let's put some fun food together with a team on a mixology night and make a nice five-course menu, matched with some drinks, matched with some music and just get people to have fun'," he said.

Anzac plastic surgery experience

Since the 1920s permission has been required to use the term Anzac, but it is so loosely enforced Anzac is even being used by plastic surgeons.

Melbourne plastic surgeon Stephen Salerno works at Real Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery, which designed its own Anzac promotion.

Real Cosmetics was offering a special Anzac Mateship Experience - a chance for two girls to rate their breasts, win a trip to Melbourne's Anzac Day AFL match and then have a free appointment with Mr Salerno.

"This is deeply despicable and completely contrary to the way that Anzac should be reflected and remembered," Mr Brown said.

Real Cosmetics has since apologised and the website has been taken down.

The RSL's national president, retired Rear Admiral Ken Doolan, says RSL members and their families "will be appalled" by the use of Anzac to sell plastic surgery.

"And I trust that the authorities will take necessary action, because that is quite beyond the pale," he said.

In Canberra, the RSL is preparing for the biggest turn out yet at the Australian War Memorial this year.

"The year before last we were astonished there were 25,000 people, turned up on a cold morning for the dawn service, last year there were 35,000, now that's roughly speaking a tenth of the population of the nation's capital," Rear Admiral Doolan said.

RSL sells a minute's silence

This year the RSL launched a campaign to sell a minute's silence.

The campaign involves customers calling up to hear the sound of silence for $2.25.

Rear Admiral Doolan rejects criticism that it could cheapen the ritual.

More than 35,000 people attended the Anzac Day dawn service in Canberra last year. ( AAP: Lukas Coch )

"You can look at it from the point of view of, does selling a poppy cheapen the image? As well, we've been selling poppies now for decades," he said.

Mr Brown says not all veterans agree with the campaign.

"The RSL's genuinely trying to connect with younger Australians and more technologically savvy Australians, but you've got to be careful that offering something special like a minute of silence for sale doesn't connect crass commercialism with the sacred traditions of Anzac Day," he said.

"I think this campaign might sit a little uneasy with some veterans."

Brown questions VB campaign

Mr Brown has also hit out at the long running Raise A Glass campaign which partners VB with the RSL and Legacy.

Until recently the campaign was fronted by now Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, who will not participate this year.

"This campaign came at a time the Australian Defence Force (ADF) was struggling with alcohol abuse," Mr Brown said.

"In one year [the ADF] lost more people to alcohol-related incidents than to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"You can't have an ADF that's trying to rid itself of alcohol-related trauma and trying to address excess drinking in its returning veterans, that also has its most significant icons supporting a campaign that encourages soldiers to drink more."

But Rear Admiral Doolan says the campaign is well established and raises millions to supply services for needy veterans.

"Half-way houses for those veterans who fall between the cracks, help for the families of those who are hospitalised or veterans who are hospitalised and their families," he said.

VB also defended the Raise A Glass campaign after Mr Brown sent them questions.