The world’s leading beer, wine and spirits producers have joined forces with four of the biggest social media platforms to set and deliver new and robust standards of responsibility for the wider industry.
The 11 producers who work together as part of the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD) have formed a unique partnership with Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube.
Speaking about the partnership, the IARD said: “As stewards of some of the world’s most known brands, we are united in our determination to set and live up to high standards of responsibility for our industries.
“By working together and leveraging the innovative and pioneering mindsets that drive our businesses, we know we can achieve more to deliver new standards of responsibility in the advertising of beer, wine and spirits across social media.”
The IARD and the social media platforms have said they will work together to:
- 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;
- explore what changes can be made to further diminish chances of those underage seeing this advertising;
- explore ways people can have greater control over whether they see alcohol advertising and opt out of receiving advertisements for alcohol products.
The IARD added: “We respect different cultural backgrounds and recognise that there are people who do not wish to see marketing communications from beer, wine and spirits producers on their social media.
“We believe our partnership has the potential to go beyond our individual companies and could create change across a range of platforms and advertisers, ultimately benefiting the thousands of businesses who want to advertise responsibly and the billions of people who use digital platforms every day.”
The IARD was formed in 2012 with the leading producers forming a collective commitment to reduce harmful drinking. The five commitments of the IARD are:
- Reduce underage drinking
- Strengthening and expanding marketing codes of practice
- Providing consumer information and responsible product innovation
- Reducing drinking and driving
- Working with retailers support to reduce harmful drinking
TheShout recently reported on the IARD’s five-year report, which detailed the alliance’s achievements in the five years since it was formed.
The IARD is made up of 11 leading beer, wine and spirits producers including: AB InBev, Asahi, Bacardi Limited, Beam Suntory, Brown-Forman, Carlsberg Group, Diageo, Heineken, Kirin, Molson Coors and Pernod Ricard.