SABMiller urges people to be responsible drinkers

Billboards with creative messages request people to drink responsibly, as well as draw traffic to a dedicated website promoting the cause.

SABMiller India has launched an out of home campaign to promote responsible drinking. The company has put up billboards with creative messages requesting people to drink responsibly at various Metro stations in Delhi, including MG Road and Huda City Centre.

The activity, which started last month, will continue for the next three months.

In line with the trend of creating awareness by adopting accessible ways of communication, this outdoor campaign has been created in-house by a team at SABMiller India.

Derek Jones, director, marketing, SABMiller India, says, "A clutter-breaking communication is essential to capture the attention of consumers in today's environment. Of late, as the Delhi Metro has become the most preferred way of transport in Delhi and the NCR, we thought that Metro stations would be an interesting medium and the ideal place to propagate messages on responsible drinking behaviour."

The billboards sport messages such as 'Underage drinking ain't cool', and 'Be good to yourself, drink responsibly', along with information about SABMiller's website, www.talkingalcohol.com, which encourages people to be informed about the choices of alcohol consumption and promotes responsible drinking behaviour.

Being an alcohol company, SABMiller believes that promoting responsible drinking should be one of its priorities. Jones adds, "The organisation believes in creating awareness, promoting responsible drinking behaviour, and help combat alcohol misuse and abuse. We are also committed to playing a legitimate and positive role in partnerships with governments, NGOs and the public health community to promote the cause."

Besides the recent outdoor campaign, SABMiller India has also partnered with Party Hard Drivers (PHD) in Mumbai. PHD provides drivers to people visiting pubs and bars. It has also launched a campaign with a Puducherry-based NGO, Social Organisation for Network Information and Communication (SONIC), to promote the same cause.

For the record, SABMiller India is one of the largest brewers in the country and has several brands such as Haywards 5000, Foster's, Indus Pride, Peroni, Royal Challenge and Knock Out.