Heineken thinks women can 'influence' men to drink less in latest global campaign
Heineken is taking a swerve in direction and focussing on women in its latest ad to promote responsible drinking in a campaign that suggests females prefer men who drink less.
Titled 'Moderate Drinkers Wanted' the global campaign, which includes a TV ad, experiential and digital activation, plus paid and earned media, shows women in bars singing along to 'I need a hero' as men pass out on couches after drinking too many pints. It then cuts to one moderate drinker who turns down another bottle of Heineken and attracts a woman's attention.
The campaign, by Publicis Italy, follows previous efforts by Heineken to promote responsible drinking including a 2011 ‘Sunrise’ ad and the consequent ‘Dance More, Drink Slow’, campaign in 2014.
However, encouraging women to moderate men's drinking could spell controversy for Heineken, which will have to work hard to avoid patronising both female and male drinkers; using a female centric approach has previously backfired for rival brewers Molson Coors and Carlsberg who launched 'female-friendly' beers Animee and Eve in 2009 and 2011 respectively and subsequently were forced to axe the brands after sales flopped.
Gianluca Di Tondo, senior director global at Heineken said the campaign comes after research in to millenial drinking habits: “69 per cent of millennials cite avoiding loss of control as the primary motivation for limiting alcohol consumption on a night-out, clearly reflecting the influence of social media and the importance of image control," he said.
"Moderation is becoming cool, but they need another push - from someone they care about. That is why the focus has now turned to women and the influence they have over our target consumer."
The campaign launches today (13 January) and for this week only social executions will be seeded to women exclusively on Facebook.