Diageo Markets Alcohol as Empowerment for Women
Posted on January 21, 2025 in Diageo, Promotion, KenyaA recent LinkedIn article titled “Embracing the Forties: Redefining Identity for Ageing Women” highlights a concerning strategy by Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL), a subsidiary of East African Breweries Limited (EABL), which is majority-owned by global alcohol giant Diageo. The article, while seemingly celebrating women’s independence and identity, promotes alcohol as part of the narrative of empowerment.
KBL’s approach is part of a broader trend where the alcohol industry targets women by aligning its products with themes of sophistication, self-care, and confidence. By framing alcohol as a companion for women redefining themselves in their forties, the industry reinforces the notion that alcohol is a natural and empowering lifestyle choice. This tactic is both misleading and harmful. By associating alcohol with independence and empowerment, KBL and its parent company Diageo obscure the significant harms alcohol causes to women’s health and well-being.
This strategy is not unique to Kenya. Alcohol companies worldwide have employed similar marketing tactics, from campaigns promoting body positivity to those framing alcohol as an essential part of gender equality. These narratives use social themes to build emotional connections with consumers, driving profits while diverting attention from the harms associated with their products.
Through language like “a journey of self-discovery and redefinition,” KBL reinforces societal pressures on women to conform to evolving ideals, such as the expectation to “age gracefully,” while using this framing to market their products. Instead of offering real solutions or promoting genuine empowerment, the industry markets alcohol as the answer, ignoring the long-term health and social consequences of its products.
Promotion, or any marketing strategies, is Big Alcohol’s activity to drive alcohol availability and acceptability, to perpetuate the alcohol norm, and to place alcohol at the center of people’s thoughts and preferences, communities’ practices, and societies’ customs. The focus of this DUBIOUS FIVE strategy is the people and their beliefs about alcohol products, the public and their attitudes about and behavior around alcohol products, and the consumers and how much, how often they buy and consume alcohol brands.