Initiatives

The vast majority of beer consumers are of legal age and drink responsibly most of the time. However, the issues of illegal underage drinking, excessive drinking, drinking before driving and other risky activities, drinking and pregnancy and other inappropriate drinking remain serious issues around the world. We believe that we should do our part to promote only responsible drinking, and join with others to discourage harmful drinking.

Each of our business units follows not only the Molson Coors Global Alcohol Policy, but also the applicable national regulatory and self-regulatory requirements regarding advertising and sales practices. In addition, each division has identified key issues where partnerships can help foster more responsible drinking patterns.

Leading the way in Canada

Molson prides itself on being a leading corporate citizen in the Canadian communities it serves, and our responsible drinking program is no exception. Molson has a long and proud history of commitment to responsible drinking In addition to being an active member of the Brewers' Association of Canada and L'Association des Brasseurs du Québec, which undertakes research, advertising and other initiatives to raise awareness, Molson has had formal responsible drinking programs in place since the late 80's:

• 1989: Responsible Drinking launched with tagline Take Care
• 1998: Formed partnership with TAXIGUY
• 1999: Launched new tagline Plan Ahead. Don't Drink and Drive
• 2003: Tagline refreshed to Don't Drink and Drive
• 2006: Formed partnership with Student Life Education Company
• 2007: Launched new Responsible Drinking program 'Here's to Responsible Choices', celebrating the responsible choices made by consumers and retailers every day.

Molson believes in reaching out to the community to find ways to spread the responsible drinking message. In addition to the dozens of community level partnerships we have with groups ranging from law enforcement to charitable organizations, Molson has two national partnerships in place.

Since 1998, Molson has been in a unique position as the only brewer with a tangible tool to stop drinking and driving in Canada: 1-888-TAXIGUY

• One easy-to-remember toll free number
• Works in over 700 cities across Canada
• Tangible tool to stop drinking and driving

Since its inception, TAXIGUY has helped over 2 million Canadians get home safely.

With a drinking age of 18–19 (depending on the province) in Canada, Molson recognizes that college and university students are a key target audience for our responsible drinking message. In order to better reach this group in a meaningful way, Molson partners with the Student Life Education Company, to help us reach the 170 campuses in their network.

• Potential reach of 990,000 students across Canada
• Goal is to reach students at colleges and universities with a drink responsibly message
• Essential element will be a strong on-campus presence

It is important that the promotion of responsible and moderate drinking be incorporated into all Molson activities, whether it is a local sales promotion or a major corporate initiative. More on our Canadian partnerships is available on the Molson website.

A tradition of education and prevention
in the US

Coors Brewing Company has actively promoted responsibility and prevention of alcohol abuse for decades. Today, our work begins with a commitment to advertise, market and sell responsibly. Then we support effective legislation, policy and research related to responsible alcohol consumption. Finally, we work to build partnerships with prevention programs that address underage drinking, drunk driving and other alcohol abuse.

Consistent with the Molson Coors Global Policy, Coors Brewing Company strictly adheres to the Beer Institute Advertising and Marketing Code and our own policies which are designed to ensure that we only target adults, 21 or older, the legal drinking age in the US, and promote only safe and moderate consumption by adults. Coors reviews all advertising and marketing content through an internal review process to ensure compliance with all policies and codes.

Coors was the first national brewer to use an independent third party review process to review complaints about advertising. Today, Coors continues its pledge to abide by the Beer Institute's Advertising and Marketing Code, which includes an independent review panel to help resolve complaints about our ads received from consumers and organizations. You can find more on this independent review process at www.beerinstitute.org.

Coors audits its advertising placements in the media to ensure we are reaching audiences that are at least 70 percent adults, 21 or older consistent with the marketing code. In addition, Coors develops responsibility advertising and public service announcements aimed at preventing underage drinking, drunk driving and other misuse and abuse of alcohol beverages. In fact, Coors was the first brewer to incorporate alcohol awareness messages into its national product advertising.

Coors supports legislation that will positively impact the responsible use of alcohol in our communities. On drunk driving, we will continue our nationwide efforts to support state measures aimed at getting new drivers off to a good start -- and keeping drunk drivers off the road. On underage drinking, we support legislation that prohibits and penalizes youth access to and possession of alcohol.

Coors continues to support education and prevention programs that help reduce alcohol abuse and misuse. In recent years, a priority has been a unique program giving parents and other adults tools to reduce underage drinking.

Parents are the MVP’s in Children’s Lives: MVParents.com

MVParents.com provides parents and other adults with important information to help them as the "most valuable player" in their child's life. MVParents.com also gives parents specific ways to help our kids be more successful in school, get involved in the community, reduce high-risk behaviors such as underage drinking, and make positive choices now and throughout their lives.

All the parenting content and tools on MVParents.com come from Search Institute^SM, a national leader in generating cutting-edge ideas, research and strategies for growing healthy, thriving children and adolescents. Founded in 1958 as an independent nonprofit organization, the mission of Search Institute is to provide leadership, knowledge and resources to promote healthy children, youth and communities.

Forging Multi-Sector Partnerships in the UK

Coors Brewers in the UK actively promotes effective self-regulation, education and prevention programs through the British Beer and Pub Association, the Portman Group, and the Drinkaware Trust. Coors Brewers also adheres to all government and industry standards regarding responsible advertising and marketing, including the Molson Coors Global Policy.

Through the BBPA, Coors Brewers, other producers and retailers commit to engage positively with Government to tackle alcohol misuse through the following:

• Building positive relationships/partnerships with Government departments,
• Fostering and facilitating informed dialogue,
• Emphasizing shared interests in identifying and implementing solutions,
• Reinforcing the principal of evidence based policy making,
• Challenging factual inaccuracies and analytical inconsistencies,
• Identifying and highlighting authoritative sources of independent research,
• Identifying the knowledge gaps and encouraging implementation of authoritative research, and
• Building on our achievements in the field of initiatives to combat alcohol misuse

The Portman Group is supported by Coors Brewers and other leading UK producers.  The organization is concerned solely with the social responsibility issues surrounding alcohol. It’s role is:

• to encourage and challenge the industry to promote its products responsibly, mainly through operating the Code of Practice on the Naming, Packaging and Promotion of Alcoholic Drinks
• to show leadership on best practice in the area of alcohol social responsibility through the actions of member companies
• to speak on behalf of members on these issues to inform public opinion and policy

The Drinkaware Trust is an independent UK-wide, public-facing body with the objective of positively changing public behavior and the national drinking culture to help reduce alcohol misuse and minimize alcohol-related harm. In so doing, the organization:

• fulfills the educational, community and awareness campaigning function envisaged in the UK Government’s Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for a fund to tackle alcohol misuse and alcohol-related harms,
• demonstrates the partnership between government and industry to develop public education campaigns,
• supports the respective strategies and action plans of the Devolved Administrations (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), and pays due regard to the balance of funding across the UK, and
• be run by and represent the perspective of a broad range of stakeholders

Branding Removed From Kids’ Replica Old Firm Shirts

Coors Brewers and the Old Firm football clubs removed the Carling branding from children’s replica shirts in April 2008 when the new season strip was introduced. This is two years before the Portman Group’s ban on branding on child size replica shirts is due to come into effect.

Mark Hunter, CEO of Coors Brewers said “Coors and the Old Firm clubs have a long track record in working together to champion responsible drinking. This means ensuring that sponsorship is not improperly targeted at people under legal drinking age – this initiative underlines that aim - and using the combination of one of the UK’s leading brands and football to promote responsible consumption by adults.”

Carling: Take it Easy

When the managers of Celtic and Rangers have something to say you can be sure people in Scotland will listen. The appearance of Martin O’Neill and Alex McLeish in a Carling TV advert encouraging consumers to “Have a drink… but take it easy” had a major impact across Scotland. The Take It Easy campaign, which was created in partnership with the Scottish Health Executive, achieved some impressive results, with consumer research showing around half the respondents who had seen it saying they will be personally more aware of how much they drink.