For the vast majority of our customers, beer is an innocent pleasure that helps make their lives more pleasurable. And we would like it to stay that way. Naturally, selling beer is Grolsch's core business, and we aim to sell as much as possible. However, at the same time we also want to remain vigilant about the potential harmful effects of irresponsible alcohol consumption, particularly amongst teenagers, pregnant women and in the traffic. Nevertheless, at Grolsch we need to live up to our responsibility, as our role is to provide thorough and accurate information and to behave in a responsible manner.
Grolsch is a strong advocate of self-regulation and enforcement. We believe that banning alcohol advertising, raising duties on beer and introducing legal restrictions on the availability of alcoholic drinks are not the best way to combat alcohol abuse. Instead, only an approach that focuses on the target group can ensure that those beer lovers who drink moderately and responsibly can continue to do so in future.
About AlcoholGrolsch participates in a variety of initiatives intended to combat alcohol abuse and promotes a number of activities specifically aimed at encouraging responsible drinking:
It is estimated that more than five hundred children in the Netherlands are born each year with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). This syndrome is the result of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. In December 2016, the FAS project published the book Waanzinnige Verhalen (“Crazy Stories”). In the book, people describe what it is like to live with FAS. In various target groups, the book contributes to further increasing the recognition and awareness of FAS in the Netherlands. Grolsch contributed financially to this book and used its communication channels to raise awareness of the book. In this way, we would like to convey the message that drinking alcohol during pregnancy is an utterly irresponsible choice.
Grolsch participated in 2016 in the documentary: FAS een stil drama.
Documentary FAS een stil dramaAs stated in the policy on commercial communication and in the Dutch Advertising Code for Alcoholic Beverages, Grolsch ensures that the advertisements reach as few as possible minors (18-). The advertising codes specify that the messages can reach up to 25% of minors (> 75% 18+).
Over the past year, Grolsch has achieved an 18+ percentage of 87, 1% with all of its media (TV, radio, print, digital channels). Grolsch's policy is aimed at a constant improvement of this percentage, with the SMRC's review of both the expression and the medium being a very important factor.
Attention pionts remain, in particular, the various social media channels of which Grolsch only uses if they are provided with a decent age gate. Channels that do not comply here are excluded from using Grolsch expressions.