As a leading global brewer we take great pride in producing and marketing our beers with quality and care. We know that the vast majority of consumers enjoy our beers responsibly.

However, we recognize that alcohol is abused by a small minority. It is therefore important that we ensure that our communication and marketing activities do not contribute to the misuse of our products, and are not, for instance, directed at people under the legal drinking age.

The InBev code is about ensuring responsible communication and providing evidence to concerned supervisory bodies that self-regulation works effectively.

By adhering fully to this code, we demonstrate best practice leadership in this area and help protect our business from future regulatory restrictions to our current marketing and advertising freedoms.

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Our Code of Commercial Communications stipulates that ‘we will not allow our brand logos or trademarks to be licensed for use on toys, children’s clothing, or on materials or merchandise for use primarily by persons below the legal drinking age.

In Scotland, we have applied this rule to our sponsorship of national football : our contract with the Scottish Football Association stipulates that no merchandise bearing a Tennent’s logo can ever be produced either to fit children or be targeted at children. Nevertheless, we paid for and relinquished the sponsorship rights to the under-16, under-17, under-18 and under-20 teams, so that the teams could tender for a second time, this way driving increased investment into Scottish football.

We are now working with the Scottish Executive to donate the rights to the under-21 team - which again we have paid for - to support our commitment to their work in promoting, for example, Healthy Scotland.

In the Czech Republic, InBev has been instrumental in developing an industry-wide compliance procedure to strengthen the Brewer’s Association Code for Responsible Marketing. Since its launch in December 2005, InBev has not been found to be in breach of the code. However there are examples of other beer adverts being withdrawn following Brewers Association Board judgements, suggesting the compliance process is making a difference.