Top drinks marketing campaigns and news in January

Global drinks brands toe the line for underage drinking

Drinks groups from Beam Suntory to AB InBev will add age restriction labels to beer, wine and spirits in an effort to curb underage drinking.

Symbols or written age restrictions will be added to labels on alcoholic drinks produced by 12 of the world’s leading drinks companies as part of their membership of the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD).

IARD’s members include Anheuser-Busch InBev, Asahi, Bacardi, Beam Suntory; Brown- Forman, Carlsberg; Diageo, Heineken, Kirin Holdings, Molson Coors, Pernod Ricard, and William Grant and Sons.

The labels will be displayed on all products worldwide by 2024, according to a statement from the group.

The IARD also pledges to never market alcohol-free extensions of alcohol brands to minors, implement “rigorous online safeguards” to prevent minors from seeing or interacting with brands online, work with retailers to improve age verification policies in-store, and put pressure on online retailers, postal services, and delivery companies to join us in “developing global standards for the online sale and delivery of alcohol.”