Blood Donors Lose Pint of Guinness in Ireland

Posted by barblog on Mar 21, 2010 in Bar Management | 0 comments

It’s the end of an era in Ireland. Guinness, whose best-known advertising campaign proclaimed that its stout “was good for you”, has scrapped the long-standing tradition of providing free drink to blood donors.

Diageo, its parent company, has decided to abandon the tradition of providing complimentary bottles of Guinness to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS). “We felt this style and type of donation was not best suited to us now,” said Grainne Mackin, for Diageo. “Guinness has long stopped promoting the product as medicinal and we want to be in full alignment with our voluntary marketing code. It wasn’t driven by any commercial agenda.”

Paddy Bowler, the director of operations at the IBTS, said it considered offering a free Guinness to every donor by buying the drink itself, but decided against it. “The government is going to lower the blood alcohol limits for drivers,” he said. “So we didn’t feel it was appropriate to supply alcohol at the clinics any more, particularly those down the country.”

Instead, blood donors will be offered a cup of tea and a biscuit, or a non-alcoholic drink, along with small tokens such as a pens, key-rings or balloons for their children.

Guinness sales have been declining in Ireland by about 8% a year, so this move probably won’t help consumption!