World Health Day
World Health Day is held each year on 7 April as the start of a year-long programme of activities on a theme selected by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The theme for 2004 was Safe Roads.
According to the WHO, road traffic accidents take the lives of 1.2 million people around the world each year. Hundreds of thousands more are injured on the road, some of whom are permanently disabled.
Our year-long support for the Safe Roads initiative has been in the form of local projects which raise awareness of drinking and driving which in many countries is a significant factor in traffic accidents and fatalities. So far 30 projects have been launched around the world, with more activities planned for the rest of the year.
Safe Roads projects
- In Greece, in conjunction with the city of Athens, we launched an Easter campaign which included road safety tips and 'don’t drink and drive' messages on posters, leaflets distributed at road tolls, magazines, newspapers and postage stamps.
- In South Africa, together with the Ministry of Health, we ran a campaign to encourage people on a night out to designate a driver to refrain from drinking. The campaign also urged taxi drivers to consider the safety of their passengers first, and strive to be the best at what they do.
- In 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, we launched a week-long 'Designated Driver Awareness Week' programme of banner adverts in the leading national newspapers to coincide with the Semana Santa celebrations, a peak holiday period.
- We ran a ‘Safe roads in the Canaries’ campaign with the Canaries Health Department, the Road Safety Authority and the Spanish Association of Driving Schools. Awareness raising activities included posters and television appearances by a leading local celebrity who reinforced the 'don’t drink and drive' message.
- In the UK we launched a safe driving policy to promote road safety awareness issues among employees.
- To discourage drink-driving in Swedish and Norwegian ski centres and Danish holiday resorts during the Easter holiday, we launched a poster and leaflet campaign in the most popular bars and hotels .
- In India we worked with the Institute of Road Traffic to launch a 'don’t drink and drive' awareness campaign which will include bus and truck driver training and provide infrastructure to improve some of the worst accident-prone roads.
- In Poland our ‘Safe return home’ campaign, launched with the police and Integracja Association, raised awareness about the influence of alcohol on drivers’ ability to drive safely.
Responsible serving
'Don't Serve Teens' campaign in United States
Diageo is proud to support the launch of 'We Don’t Serve Teens,' a U.S.A public awareness campaign to prevent underage drinking. This initiative is designed to inform adults that providing people in the United States under 21 years of age with alcohol is illegal, unsafe and irresponsible. The 'We Don’t Serve Teens' campaign will distribute materials to retailers and community organisations that reminds parents and other adults that providing alcohol to teens can have serious ramifications.
www.dontserveteens.gov
Serving consumers
Those who serve alcohol in bars can influence the way in which it is consumed. Diageo is a strong supporter of responsible bartender training that helps to put this influence to good use. In the United States, we have supported the TIPS (Training for Intervention Procedures) server training initiative for several years; in 2003 we began Spanish-language training in US cities with large Hispanic populations. When this was introduced to the Los Angeles area at a 'Cuatro de Mayo' event, Californian governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed a proclamation commending the programme. Through our membership of the Irish social aspects organisation MEAS, we support a responsible serving programme in partnership with the Department of Health and CERT, the Irish hospitality industry training body. Over 2,000 bartenders have now been trained through the Diageo-funded scheme in Kenya and the Johnnie Walker School in Soeul, Korea has graduated 7,000 bartenders since it was founded 14 years ago. Programmes have also been established in Brazil, Nigeria, Scotland, Seychelles and Thailand.
The Responsible Retailing Forum (RRF), formed in January 2003 with funding from Diageo North America and the Diageo Foundation, has now launched demonstration projects in Birmingham, Alabama; Springfield, Missouri; Santa Fe, New Mexico and Des Moines, Iowa. The goal of RRF is to establish and evaluate new best practices to reduce underage access to alcohol. The demonstration projects involve distributing a retailer planning tool, establishing community groups to study the problem locally, and rigorously evaluating the process using ‘mystery shopper’ inspections, surveys and interviews with retailers and other community partners. RRF is also conducting pioneering work on the use of social norms to affect retailer practices.
Participants at the first RRF meeting in Orlando included six national chain retailers (including Wal-Mart, Seven-Eleven, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon), six state attorneys-general, nine state alcohol control agencies and industry and government representatives. RRF was the only underage access programme cited by the Federal Trade Commission in its September 2003 report to Congress on alcohol advertising and marketing. Weblink: www.fcte.fsu.edu/retail/