Guinness Cameroon launches ‘Responsible Alcohol’ campaign

Guinness Cameroon has launched its marketing campaign, ‘Responsible Alcohol’ on Tuesday, November 18 at the Hilton Hotel to embark on a broad national campaign on the responsible sale of alcohol to operators of licensed premises commonly called “Barmen ".

Dr. Christian Edmond Pout, The Corporate Relations Director West and Central Africa Diageo spoke first to explain the merits of the campaign.

"This campaign has a dual interest; health and safety. We will train 2,000 bartenders in the country. In three weeks, we have trained 678 bartenders in Douala. We will do the same for Yaoundé and throughout the country. Bartenders must educate their customers about the dangers of alcohol abuse. They also have the obligation not to sell alcohol to minors under 18 years”, he said.

Guinness will be joined by the SYNEDEBOC (National Union of Beverage operators Flows of Cameroon), MINATD (Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization) and other beer companies for the effectiveness of this campaign.

"It is true that it is we who have launched this campaign, but we will not be alone. We will be accompanied by SYNEDEBOC, MINATD and other beer companies, as proof, you have in the room representatives from Fermencam, SABC, and UBC", added Dr. Edmond Christian Pout.

National President of SYNEDEBOC, Roger Tapa Thiesso, and a key partner of the campaign took to the floor to present their unification with Guinness citizen in this project since their partnership on March 12, 2014. He took the podium to denounce the behavior of prefects and sub- prefects who “disturb the bartenders".

“In Cameroon, we have over 300,000 bars. It is the activity that contributes more to the economy. As part of this campaign, we play the role of co- facilitator training sessions. With our partner, we will do the monitoring and evaluation of training received by these bartenders. At our level, we have trained 50 waitresses. Since they have direct contact with the customer, it is important for them to have a professional attitude. I take advantage of the presence of SG MINATD to denounce the behavior of sub- prefects close taverns for months and leave the Cameroonian unemployed”, he said.

Then again Secretary General of MINATD, Pierre Essomba spoke about the dangers posed by the alcohol abuse.

“Alcohol kills more than AIDS, tuberculosis. Over 2,500,000 million deaths per year have been recorded according to WHO. Your campaign is welcome, MINATD will bring you the necessary support to carry out your mission”, he said.

This marketing campaign, Responsible Alcohol of Guinness Cameroon is part of its social responsibility and has its basis in the commitment of Diageo and 12 other major world producers of beer, wine and spirits took on October 9, 2012. This was to support the global strategy of the World Health Organization to reduce the harmful use of alcohol adopted in May 2010.

Its aim is to encourage professionalism in the practice of the bartender to cause them to contribute in their small way, in the fight against access to alcohol by minors, the fight against drunk driving and the fight against alcohol abuse.