Sainsburys Shuns New Smarter Drinking Campaign

Tue, 21 Jul 2009
 
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Supermarket chain Sainsburys has snubbed a major new marketing campaign aimed at tackling binge drinking in the UK.

The Government-backed 100m ‘Campaign For Smarter Drinking’ launched last week with the support of more than 45 drinks companies and alcohol retailers, including Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, M&S and The Co-operative Group .

However, Sainsbury's was absent from the list, along with upmarket food and drink retailer Waitrose .

A spokeswoman for Sainsbury’s said although the company "wholeheartedly" supports the principles of the campaign, it declined to participate in the campaign as the work "duplicates rather than furthers our existing work in encouraging responsible drinking ".

She added that Sainsbury’s takes its "responsibilities as a licensed retailer very seriously" and has set up a number of alcohol retailing initiatives, including the introduction of a Think-25 policy in-store.

Set to run over the next five years, the anti binge-drinking campaign aims to change attitudes towards excessive drinking among Britain’s18-34 year olds by highlighting the benefits of "responsible enjoyment".

According to campaign chairman Richard Evans, the initiative will engage with the target market rather than lecture them.

He said: "This is asking them a question, it’s asking them to think for themselves, and to act on it."

The campaign’s strapline ‘why let good times go bad?’ will appear on 10 million packs of beer, wines and spirits over the next five years.

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