Throughout recorded history, consumption of alcoholic beverages has been widespread in many cultures around the world. In the earliest societies alcohol became integrated into mythology, religion, ritual culture and economy. Today drinking alcoholic beverages is an accepted social activity in many societies.
An ample body of research-based evidence suggests that, for most consumers, drinking beer responsibly contributes to a positive life style. At the same time Heineken recognises that irresponsible drinking may cause harm to the individual and to society. Irresponsible consumption is defined as drinking for the wrong moments or drinking too much too often.
Our alcohol policy statement
Heineken's alcohol policy sets out our position on alcohol and alcohol use and abuse. It also details the actions we take to help prevent irresponsible alcohol consumption. The central idea in our policy statement is responsibility: the notion that consumers ultimately bear responsibility for the ways they use alcohol, and that Heineken is under an obligation to sell and promote beer in a responsible manner.
Based on our alcohol policy we have three different pillars in our approach towards the issue:
- Alcohol & Work: a programme that focuses on the awareness and responsibility of our employees
- Responsible commercial communication: an activity that aims to achieve consistent, responsible brand communication by sharing the ‘dos and don’ts’ across the world-wide Heineken organisation
- Enjoy Heineken Responsibly: a programme that provides the basis for a number of activities designed to inform and educate consumers about the effects of alcohol on health and social environment
To download our alcohol policy statement, please download the PDF at the end of this page.
Alcohol & Work
Through our Cool @ Work programme, we encourage all our employees to drink beer responsibly - setting a good example to all those outside our business. We have maintained an alcohol information programme now for several years. This informs employees about the effects of alcohol in beer and explains how they can enjoy it responsibly. The programme has been introduced via workshops designed to help operating companies set up local Alcohol & Work programmes. A special training programme has been devised for on-trade representatives, because people employed in this sector have to cope with additional pressures at work. Heineken also offers help for employees with respect of alcohol-related problems.
Responsible commercial communication
An important building block of our alcohol policy is our belief that we must promote responsible consumption through our advertising and promotions. Our advertising must never appear to condone or promote irresponsible consumption.
We have set rules for responsible commercial communication for almost forty years. As far as the late 1960s we made it a point of company policy for our ads not to encourage alcohol misuse and to target only those above the legal drinking age.
Some public interest organisations advocate restrictions or total bans on the advertising of alcohol products. They argue that reducing advertising will reduce excessive consumption or other abuses. However, a considerable body of social research from around the world fails to support this argument.
Heineken believes that misuse of alcohol should be addressed via specific measures targeted at specific kinds of abuse. For example, driving while intoxicated (a clear example of irresponsible consumption) is being addressed via legislation, awareness campaigns and by the enforcement of regulations. Bob, the successful industry-promoted designated driver programme that was developed by the beer industry in Belgium, has been introduced in many countries across Europe with support from the brewing industry.
In the past two years understanding of, and compliance with, our Rules on Responsible Commercial Communications have been strengthened via presentations to management teams, through workshops for the marketing and sales discipline and via an online training tool. The rules and guidelines cover all Heineken brands marketed world-wide.
Enjoy Heineken Responsibly
One of the fundamental principles of our Alcohol Policy is that, whilst individuals are responsible for their own drinking behaviour, Heineken has a commitment to help consumers understand what responsible and irresponsible consumption means. To this end, in November 2004 we announced the introduction of the ‘Enjoy Heineken Responsibly’ initiative. Heineken bottles and cans in many of our markets carry the message: ‘Enjoy Heineken Responsibly’, along with an invitation to visit our dedicated website http://www.enjoyheinekenresponsibly.com/ where consumers can obtain more information on the effects of alcohol and an explanation of what responsible consumption means.
But we realise that we can not achieve our objectives on responsible beer consumption by ourselves. Alcohol abuse and misuse are complex problems that need involvement from many social actors, including governments. For this reason our Alcohol Policy stresses the need to sustain dialogue with government and health organisations in order to help promote responsible drinking and to help prevent abuse.
| 
