I like Heineken, while I don’t drink much I do enjoy a cold Heineken every now and again. I was very surprised when a friend posted a picture on my Facebook account of a dog fight where Heineken banners were placed throughout the arena. The posting was encouraging everyone to stop buying Heineken and let them know why. It was obvious that this had already been shared far and wide.

Now over the past few years, I’ve learned a lot about crisis communications, a real lot so I knew that before I began looking for a new beer to drink and before I went ahead and passed judgement, I wanted to see what they had to say for themselves.

Here is what I found on their web site:

Images continue to circulate in social media channels showing a dog fight, with Heineken® banners clearly visible in the background. This is very distressing and totally unacceptable. As a company and a brand owner, we do not and would never knowingly support any event, outlet or individual involved in this type of activity. It is against our company and brand rules and – more important – against our company values.  

Since this matter was brought to our attention via Facebook we have conducted an investigation and now know that:

• – The venue is a nightclub in Mongolia
• – The venue hosted a dog fight of which we had no knowledge and were not involved in any way
• – The venue owner has verbally confirmed that Heineken® banners are visible in the pictures because the previous evening the club had been decorated for a promotional event and he had failed to remove the banners once it was over. This event was in no way related to the dog fight

Based on this we have taken the following immediate actions:

• – Removed all remaining promotional materials from the venue
• – Withdrawn all current product stock from the club
• – Ceased our relationship, ensuring our brands will not be available in the club again
• – Instructed our distributor to check every location where our brands can be enjoyed to ensure such illegal activities are not taking place. If there is any suggestion that they are, we will take the same action and remove our products
• – Continue to ensure our strict advertising and promotion guidelines are enforced both to the letter and the spirit of their intent

We want to thank our consumers on-line for bringing this issue to our attention. We are shocked and disappointed by these images. We fully understand the level of negative feeling amongst consumers based on what they have seen. We appreciate that the vast majority have asked for our point of view before making a judgment. We encourage our consumers to continue to use social media channels to alert us to any situation where they feel our brands are being misrepresented, so that we can take the appropriate actions. (Source: http://www.heinekeninternational.com/heineken-not-sponsor-dogfighting.aspx)

So it appears as though Heineken is as disgusted as we are. But wait, let’s look a little closer at my favorite beer company. Their statement opens with how they feel the act is “unacceptable” and “against their company values”. Okay, that’s kind of weak, perhaps a comment about how they would never be involved in any situation where “an animal is abused” or maybe if they had been a little more convincing that they cared about animals above their brand I wouldn’t have dug deeper. But I did. What I found was a commercial from 2011 where a man wearing a snake skin jacket attended an organized snake fight and bets on the outcome.

So does animal fighting really go against their “company values”? I’d say no, if it did this commercial would never had been made.  Did the pictures of the dog fight damage their brand? I’d say yes, Will I switch to another brand of beer? I’d have to say yes to that one too.