Guinness will no longer be promoted as "good for you" and the tradition of the brewery supplying bottles of stout free to blood donors has been discontinued, the company confirmed yesterday, writes TIM O'BRIEN.
A spokeswoman for Diageo, the Guinness group’s global parent, said the decision was in line with Diageo’s corporate strategy.
“We no longer want to promote alcohol as a medicine, or to imply it can be used as a treatment or a cure,” the company said.
While the move may represent a big break with tradition, the decision to stop supplying free beer to blood donor clinics will make little difference in practice. Few people in recent years availed of the one bottle of stout which was offered.
Diageo was unable to say yesterday how much the scheme cost, but the spokeswoman stressed the decision to break with tradition had not been made on a cost basis. “It was just something that did not fit in with Diageo’s marketing code, which is a voluntary code under which Diageo wouldn’t want to be seen to be promoting alcohol as a medicine.”
In 2003 researchers at the University of Wisconsin reported a pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as a low dose aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.