Beer consumption in Brazil fell 5% in 2025 – the largest reduction in over a decade – and the industry’s own trade body says young people are the reason. Facing falling profits, shrinking sales, and stock prices that have shed a third of their value in three years, Ambev and Heineken are targeting the young people who are walking away – with alcohol products marketed as wellness choices, celebrity-endorsed alcopops, and entertainment-branded drinks.
The scale of the shift is clear. According to CervBrasil, the Brazilian beer industry’s trade association, the country consumed 14.75 billion litres of beer in 2025 – down from 15.5 billion in 2024. CervBrasil’s director-general Paulo Petroni told O Globo that young people “are not consuming alcohol like previous generations.” An Ipsos-Ipec surveyfound that 64% of Brazilians did not use alcohol in 2025 – up nine percentage points from 2023.
This is not a uniquely Brazilian phenomenon. Globally, Generation Z uses alcohol significantly less than previous generations. Research consistently shows that health consciousness, mental health awareness, and changing social patterns are driving a structural decline in alcohol use among younger adults. The global alcohol industry has lost an estimated $830 billion in market value between 2021 and 2025 as consumption patterns shift.
For public health, this is good news. For the alcohol industry, it is a crisis – and the response tells us everything about its priorities.
Health-washing: making alcohol look like wellness
A particularly insidious element of the industry’s response in Brazil is the use of health signalling to position alcoholic beverages as compatible with the very wellness values that are driving young people away from alcohol.
Heineken is marketing Sol Zero as a beer “without gluten and with vitamins D and B.” Stella Artois Pure Gold is promoted as low-calorie and gluten-free. Amstel Ultra is positioned with “30% fewer calories.” Ambev launched Skol Zero Zero – branded as free from alcohol, sugar, and gluten – explicitly as a response to what its vice-president of marketing Dani Waks described as “the growing trend of consumers who seek more balanced choices.”
This framing is of course deliberately misleading. Attaching vitamins, “gluten-free” labels, and calorie counts to alcohol brands does not make alcohol safer – it makes it seem safer. The health claims serve to reposition the brand, not to describe the product.
As the Harvard Petrie-Flom Center has noted in analysing vitamin-fortified alcohol products, the strategy relies on consumers making the connection that these products are healthier – without companies needing to make explicit health claims that would trigger regulatory scrutiny. Adding nutrients to alcohol products does not reduce alcohol harm. But it does reduce the perception of harm – which is exactly the point.
Products designed to recruit young consumers
Beyond health-washing, the industry is launching products explicitly designed to appeal to the demographics that are turning away from beer.
Ambev has signed pop star Anitta as the face of Beats, its line of alcopops. The latest variant, Green Mix, promises “citrus notes of kiwi, green apple, and lime.” These are not products for traditional beer consumers. They are designed to attract young people – particularly young women – who would not otherwise engage with the alcohol category.
The same logic drives Flying Fish, a flavoured beer Ambev imported from South Africa and is distributing through Oxxoconvenience stores – a retail channel frequented by younger consumers. And it is the logic behind the Bridgerton-branded Brutal Fruit – a flavoured alcoholic beverage wrapped in Netflix series branding, previously documented on Big Alcohol Exposed as part of a three-year AB InBev–Netflix global marketing partnership. That report showed how AB InBev is using entertainment licensing to reach audiences – particularly young women under 30 – through cultural products rather than recognisable alcohol advertising.
Heineken’s strategy follows the same pattern. The company has grouped brands like Praya, Mamba Water, and Baer Mate into a division it calls Better Drinks – a name that implies the rest of its portfolio is worse, while attaching a health halo to products still sold by one of the world’s largest alcohol companies. These products were available in 10,000 stores and bars in 2024; by 2025, that had grown to more than 60,000. Its new Lager Spritz – a beer-spritz hybrid – is designed to attract consumers who would otherwise choose cocktails or non-alcoholic drinks.
Zero-alcohol products: brand infrastructure, not reducing harm
The industry points to zero-alcohol beer as evidence of its commitment to healthier choices. The growth figures sound impressive – CervBrasil reports that the category grew more than 500% in 2024 and another 100% in 2025, and Ambev reported non-alcoholic beer volumes up 43% in Q4 2025. But these increases start from a very low base, and the percentages flatter the reality. Zero-alcohol products still represent only around 5% of total beer sales in Brazil – and globally, the share is even smaller.
The industry presents zero-alcohol products as evidence of corporate responsibility. But Heineken’s outgoing CEO Dolf van den Brink was explicit about the real function: as he told investors, extending zero-alcohol lines allows Heineken to “play into premium adult natural beverages” using “a beer brand as a brand carrier.”
Zero-alcohol products are a marketing vehicle. They open doors to sponsorships, events, and advertising spaces that would otherwise be closed to alcohol companies – sports arenas, music festivals, public transport, health and fitness contexts. The brand gets visibility in environments where alcohol advertising would face scrutiny or outright limitations, all while the company claims to be promoting healthier choices.
An industry in crisis – spending its way out
The financial pressure behind these launches is not hidden. Beer sales in Brazil fell 4.5% in 2025 – the steepest drop the industry has recorded in over a decade. Ambev’s net income fell 9.9% in Q4 2025, with total volumes down 3.6%. Heineken announced in February 2026 that it would cut up to 6,000 jobs – approximately 7% of its global workforce – after beer volumes declined 2.4% in 2025, with a 2.8% decline in the Americas.
In response, both companies are increasing marketing spending. Ambev reported that marketing and selling expenses expanded to 9.9% of net revenue. CervBrasil is counting on the 2026 FIFA World Cup to recover consumption.
The industry’s own advisers are candid about what is happening. David Fiss, a senior beverage industry consultant at Worldpanel by Numerator, told O Globo that the industry’s challenge is no longer about volume but about “relevance.” That word is telling. The industry is not losing a price war or a competition with rival products. It is losing its place in people’s lives. Every product launch documented in this report – the vitamin-fortified beers, the celebrity-fronted alcopops, the entertainment-branded drinks, the convenience store rollouts – is an attempt to buy that relevance back.
Sources:
- CervBrasil / O Globo. “Brasileiro bebe menos cerveja, e indústria cria novos sabores.” 15 March 2026. https://oglobo.globo.com/economia/negocios/noticia/2026/03/15/brasileiro-bebe-menos-cerveja-e-industria-cria-novos-sabores.ghtml
- Movendi International. “Ambev Responds to Declining Beer Sales By Expanding Digital Alcohol Availability.” Media Snapshot, February 2026. https://movendi.ngo/media-snapshot/ambev-responds-to-declining-beer-sales-by-expanding-digital-alcohol-availability/
- Big Alcohol Exposed. “AB InBev Turns Netflix’s Bridgerton Into a Marketing Channel for Alcopops in Brazil.” 16 February 2026. https://bigalcohol.exposed/ab-inbev-turns-netflixs-bridgerton-into-a-marketing-channel-for-alcopops-in-brazil/
- CNBC. “Heineken to slash up to 6,000 jobs in AI ‘productivity savings.'” 11 February 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/heineken-slash-6000-jobs-ai-productivity-savings-.html