Diageo is launching its responsible drinking website this week but what are its aims? asks RONAN MCGREEVY
GUINNESS IS 250 years old this year, an anniversary which is likely to be marked with the same marketing panache and advertising brio which it has displayed throughout its history.
The launch this week of the Irish version of its website drinkiq.com will occur with much less fanfare. The website, which is hosted by Guinness’s parent company, the drinks giant Diageo, has been set up to reinforce its credentials as an organisation that promotes responsible drinking.
Drinkiq has already been launched in the US and the UK, and the Republic will be the third of 27 markets worldwide to host a version of the website. All Diageo employees working in Ireland will also go through a drinkiq workshop.
Drinkiq.com is an extensive website which offers information about alcohol, its effect on the body and tips on how best to promote responsible drinking.
There are video postings from experts in the field on the Responsibility Channel, an online community where people with an interest in the subject can share videos and programmes about alcohol-related issues.
In Ireland, as in other countries, the drink industry has been under pressure to do its part in discouraging the culture of binge and excessive drinking.
Through its high-profile “drink aware” and “I’ve had enough” campaigns, the industry has sought to establish its sincerity and, in the process, stave off more regulation, particularly further restrictions on alcohol advertising.
The head of corporate social responsibility for Diageo Ireland, Jean Doyle, said Diageo was serious about promoting responsible drinking even if it appears ostensibly to hurt the company’s bottom line.
“This is a point that is raised on a regular basis. We are the world’s leading drink company. We have a real vested interest in making progress to reduce the misuse of alcohol and to make responsible drinking a valued part of life,” she said.
“To us, short-term people who abuse our products are not in our best interest. From a commercial point of view, we are far more interested in having a sustainable product and a sustainable business available to people where we can ensure our products are available in the future.”
Ms Doyle said the aim was to make drinkiq.com the “go to” website for all discussions in relation to alcohol consumption in Ireland. “The idea is that you use both the material from the Irish stuff and the global stuff to make it more meaningful and relevant for consumers and other key stakeholders,” she said.
“There will be information from a broad range of people, regulators, educators, people from NGOs and health promotion people. It makes a valid point that, if people choose not to drink, that’s okay as well.”
As the company which supplies about half of the alcohol consumed in Ireland including iconic brands such as Guinness, Carlsberg and Bailey’s, Diageo has been heavily involved in setting up Meas, the alcohol industry’s own initiative in relation to promoting sensible drinking.
However, critics of the drink industry such as Joe Barry, professor of public health in Trinity College Dublin, doubt Diageo’s sincerity, saying previous responsible drinking campaigns by the industry have not worked. “This is 100 per cent a PR exercise,” he said.
“Half of all alcohol sold in Ireland is a Diageo product, so half of all alcohol harm in Ireland must come from Diageo products.
“Any attempt to lessen that harm is met with the corporate social responsibility stuff which is completely meaningless.”
Rolande Anderson, alcohol project director at the Irish College of General Practitioners, described Diageo’s initiative as “tokenism – at best disingenuous and at worst cynical”.
Mr Anderson said drinks companies could not get past the fact that their business was selling alcohol and, if Irish people stuck to the recommended limit of 21 units of alcohol per week for men and 14 units of alcohol for women, their profits would be seriously curtailed.
“I would prefer if they did nothing and just admitted that their business is selling alcohol and we would take the money they spend on ‘responsible drinking’ as a health tax which would be put into public health initiatives.”