Responsibility is at the heart of the total beverage alcohol industry, and in 2012, Brown-Forman, Diageo and Heineken USA/Molson Coors joined forces with other top beer, wine and spirits producers to promote responsible consumption through the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking. Together, these industry leaders and the IARD focused on five key commitments to address the possible harmful effects of alcohol misuse, and the first five years of work yielded real, measurable impact and hope for further successes.
Worldwide, Brown-Forman, Diageo, Heineken USA/Molson Coors and the other producers working with the IARD made significant gains in promoting healthier alcohol consumption.
1. Reducing underage drinking
1.5 million engagements, such as meetings, workshops, and partnerships, in support of Legal Purchase Age regulations between 2013 and 2017. Education programs and materials from the IARD reached 6 million underage individuals and 3 million influencers via face-to-face interactions between 2015 and 2017 alone.
2. Strengthening and expanding marketing codes of practice
Signatories published Digital Guiding Principles governing digital marketing in 2014 and worked with advertising agencies to ensure that 97% of all contracts in 2017 specified that the agencies had to comply with those principles.
3. Providing consumer information and responsible product innovation
85% of products, of the seven signatories reporting by brands, carried symbols or words warning against harmful drinking in 2017.
4. Reducing drinking and driving
IARD signatories operated an average of 347 drinking and driving prevention programs each year between 2014 and 2017 and in 82 different countries in 2017 alone.
5. Working with retailers’ support to reduce harmful drinking
IARD members have rolled out responsible drinking initiatives in 68 countries, a 66% increase between 2014 and 2017, and operated an average of 224 local responsible retailing initiatives per year.
“Ask, Listen, Learn”
Recognizing the importance of early education, The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility (FAAR) engages children, aged nine to 14, with a science-based, cross-curricular teaching program “Ask, listen, learn: alcohol and your developing brain” to educate children on the dangers of and consequences of underage drinking. The program provides a digital suite of educational resources to teachers, school counselors, nurses, other educators and parents. The resources are accessible online and available free of charge. The program includes seven animated videos, lesson plans, interactive classroom activities, a facilitator’s guide and video, and additional resources for parents, games, and other activities.
The content in the “Ask, Listen, Learn” program is aligned to the National Health Education Standards (NHES), the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI), and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), according to the IARD, thus ensuring that the resources are matched to the curriculum used by teachers.
FAAR is supported by many companies, including our partners at Brown-Forman, Diageo and Heineken USA/Molson Coors.
Digital 2.0
Building on these successes, and looking forward to the future, the IARD and its members are now working directly with the operators of some of the world’s most important social media channels and digital platforms to create and enact new, enhanced standards of behavior and responsibility for their respective industries. The IARD recently announced this new, unprecedented partnership between the eleven IARD signatories and four of the world’s leading digital platforms: Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube. Through this joint partnership, the IARD and these social media channels will work toward three goals, according to a release from the IARD:
1. Ensure the most-up-to-date safeguards are used so that marketing communications relating to beer, wine and spirits are directed to those adults who can lawfully buy these products.
2. Explore what changes can be made to further diminish chances of those underage seeing this advertising.
3. Explore ways people can have greater control over whether they see alcohol advertising and opt out of receiving advertisements for alcohol products. We respect different cultural backgrounds and recognize that there are people who do not wish to see marketing communications from beer, wine and spirits producers on their social media.
The IARD sees this partnership as having the potential to foster a cascading change that transcends the industry and these specific networks, improving the way thousands of businesses across other industries share their messages and encouraging more responsible advertising.
The Mission Continues
Breakthru Beverage is proud of the great work Brown-Forman, Diageo and Heineken USA/Molson Coors has done already, and we are encouraged to see what they and the IARD will accomplish going forward.
We are committed to promoting responsible sales and consumption everywhere we do business, and we are thrilled to have supplier partners who are just as dedicated to improving our communities. Read about what the IARD has already accomplished in their 2017 progress report and reach out to the IARD to find out what your business can do to build on their mission and encourage responsibility in your own community.