France: Heineken�s below-the-line advertising to raise the image of beer to compete with wine

In a country where alcohol is barred from television and high-profile sports sponsorships, underground advertising is fermenting into new exotic forms like cocktail-shaking classes and dried-fruit Heineken recipes for "Moelleux � la Bi�re Brune," The International Herald Tribune posted June 04.

Along the tourist path of the Champs-�lys�es, the Dutch brewer Heineken has created an ultramodern preserve called Culture Bi�re with menus color-coded for matching the proper beer with tuna steaks or cumin-flavored tortillas. The sleek club lounge, thematic restaurant and boutique are designed with one overriding message: to raise the image of beer to compete with wine, which seems as essential as water in France.

"Globally, one of the issues that we face in France is that it is not a beer country but a wine country, and the image of beer is very poor," said Richard Weissend, managing director for Brasseries Heineken in Paris. "It was our task to create a plan to improve that and to show that the colors, the aromas and the flavors of beer could be just as rich as wine."

Heineken has a long legacy of creative ploys, which are known in the trade today as below-the-line advertising. Alfred (Freddie) Heineken, the late grandson of the company's founder, devoted nearly a half century to transforming the company's beer into an internationally famous brew. He made sure, for example, that the first crate of any beer to arrive in the United States after the end of Prohibition in 1933 contained 25 barrels of Heineken.

Today, though, advertising and marketing strategies for alcohol companies are turning into a form of lifestyle entertainment. They are often tested in one country and then rolled out globally in the bigger markets like the United States. Some international companies are making it their mission to transform drinks into fashion statements even in countries where they can advertise on television or cable.

It is a trend that worries health organizations because of the inherent difficulties of monitoring such unconventional advertising, which cannot be easily measured like standard radio spots or magazine ads.

"Classic advertising is much easier to find and control," said Monique Kuunders, a policy advisor for STAP, the Foundation for Alcohol Prevention in Utrecht, Netherlands, where the drinking age starts at 16. "It's probably one of the reasons that these unconventional measures are so popular. Young people are more sensitive to advertising that doesn't look like advertising."