Heineken Uses Dating to Push Beer – Turns Loneliness Into a Sales Strategy

Heineken is now using dating apps to sell more beer. In Brazil and Italy, the company launched two bar-based alcohol marketing campaigns that exploit dating fatigue to sell more alcohol.

With “The Social Swap” in Brazil and “The Ghosted Bar” in Italy, Heineken frames itself as a solution to the loneliness and disconnection caused by online dating. But the real goal is to get more people into alcohol-fueled environments, increasing brand loyalty and boosting sales. These bars are fitted with Heineken-branded tech – from screens to QR codes – turning dating into just another funnel for alcohol consumption.

By inserting itself into people’s personal lives and relationships, Heineken is proving that nothing is off-limits when it comes to selling beer. The company is targeting human connection itself – and turning it into a marketing channel.

Brazil and Italy aren’t random choices. Brazil is a growing market with high rates of alcohol harm. Italy is a key market where Heineken is working to reshape alcohol norms to increase sales.

This campaign is about more people, spending more time, in Heineken-branded spaces, consuming more alcohol. And like always, the alcohol industry calls it “helping” or “engaging” – but it’s just another way to distract from the harm caused by its products and practices.

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.

Source:
https://drinks-intel.com/beer/heineken-introduces-on-premise-dating-apps-in-brazil-and-italy/

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