Responsible drinking

Helping to prevent irresponsible alcohol consumption.

Rapid intoxication or intoxication for an extended period of time carries the potential for considerable social, psychological and physical harm. We take steps to engage stakeholders to help prevent irresponsible consumption.

Reality Check in South Africa

In 2009 SAB launched an innovative programme to tackle alcohol abuse in South Africa.

The new programme addresses drinking and driving, Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and underage drinking – issues identified as needing targeted action beyond communication and education.

Read more about Reality Check in South Africa

Targeting students in Romania

Our ‘Measure your Lifestyle’ campaign in Romania encourages students to enjoy alcohol in moderation and so avoid personal, social and health costs to themselves, their families, and society as a whole.

The programme is supported by student unions and universities.

Dreher Breweries’ Alcohol Responsibility Programme

The aim of Dreher Breweries’ Alcohol Responsibility Programme was to initiate a dialogue on responsible alcohol consumption among Hungarian adults, the government and NGOs using a dedicated website at www.alkohol.info.hu.

Visitors to the website can access relevant information including the expert opinion of scientists, government officials and others on responsible alcohol consumption.

In its first year the website attracted 131,910 visitors. In an independent survey, 89% of visitors found the website interesting, 79% found it credible and 64% thought it contained content that met their personal interests.

One feature of the programme was that it enables stakeholders to share information and openly state their positions on alcohol. In all, 504 comments on 31 different topics were posted on the website. 68% of visitors argued for moderate consumption, 70% emphasised the importance of personal responsibility, 52% wrote about their personal experience and 20% of visitors asked for help or advice.

Sponsoring a radio show in Malawi

We promote responsible alcohol consumption in Malawi by sponsoring a weekly radio show that discourages underage drinking, pregnant women from drinking alcohol and anti-social behaviour. We also include responsible messages on all of our advertising.

Africa adopts consistent alcohol labelling

This year our African businesses agreed to standardise their approach to product labelling to ensure a consistent message across all products and countries with regard to responsible drinking.

With effect from April 2009, all new packaging includes one of two clear messages on the label:

• Not for sale to persons under the age of 18
• Alcohol abuse is dangerous to your health.

Each business has been given clear guidelines on how these messages should be used. For example, each must be rotated regularly across product ranges and the message size must be at least 8% of the area of the label.