Spirits producers strive to tackle harmful drinking

Spirits companies have marked two years’ progress in tackling harmful drinking through new guidelines and education programmes, but there is “still more to be done”.

Spirits producers have marked two years’ progress in tackling harmful drinking

CEOs of leading beer, wine and spirits producers released a report highlighting the progress the industry has made to reduce harmful drinking, marking the second year of the five-year programme – the Beer, Wine and Spirits Producers’ Commitments to Reduce Harmful Drinking.

The project has seen improvements in curbing underage drinking, preventing drink driving and strengthening and expanding marketing codes of practice to promote responsible drinking.

“We believe that addressing harmful drinking must involve all sectors of society – governments, civil society, and the private sector – and are therefore pleased that the CEOs of the major alcohol-producing companies have agreed to a set of five commitments to address harmful drinking in a five-year programme of work,” commented Ann Keeling, president/CEO, International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD).

“IARD welcomes other alcohol-producing companies and retailers to join us in scaling up this effort and invites partners from government, civil society, and international organisations to read this report and see how we can collaborate to find solutions.”

Measures included launching a set of digital guiding principles in September 2014 outlining boundaries for alcohol producers when it comes to online and social media marketing.

An alcohol education guide was also released in October 2014, offering step-by-step development of alcohol education programmes with interactive, comprehensive and user-friendly resources.

Education programmes have reached more than 2.58 million underage people while the adult reach jumped from approximately 500,000 to 3.26 million.

“Negative” messages

Both individually and collectively, a total of 375 drink driving efforts were launched in 146 countries, including Diageo’s campaigns such as the Johnnie Walker “Join the Pact”, which encourages consumers to never drink and drive and has so far accumulated 2m pledges.

“We are two years into the most ambitious initiative our industry has ever collectively undertaken to address harmful drinking and, while we have made good progress, there is still more work to be done,” said Ivan Menezes, chief executive, Diageo. “And we will do more.

“The second year of collaboration has encouraged us that through partnerships even more can be achieved.

“We will continue to work in communities across the world to help reduce harmful drinking.”

Pernod Ricard also noted numerous initiatives around the world, such as the “Menores ni una gota” (not a single drop for minors), launched in 2014 in association with the Spanish Ministry of Health.

In Australia, the drinks firm launched the “Drinking – do it properly” campaign in a bid to offer an alternative to the “negative” messages about alcohol, and successfully reached almost 2m Australians.