don's report archive

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Should A Beer Company Win A Wellness Award?
Wednesday August 22, 2001

Yesterday, I described how the Adolph Coors Company of Golden, Colorado has won many awards for helping employees choose healthy lifestyles, what they have done to earn major wellness awards in particular, and started to explore if there are any problems inherent in all this. Today’s DR takes up where I left off -- with all the good stuff and hot topics covered today!

Where do YOU stand? SHOULD a brewery be eligible for an award of this nature, given the immense possibilities for harm from the alcohol it sells in order to gain the revenues it needs to grow and prosper, reward shareholders and support the well-being of its employees?

When I brought this issue to Kelly's attention, they replied that they could in no way show either bias or prejudice on this score. The decision was made early on that company products were not relevant, that the award was for the most effective strategy for EMPLOYEE health. Period. An entrant could be making Zircon gas and it would not be a factor in assessing the company role in promoting healthy lifestyles. In short, how a company got the money to support its wellness commitment was not among the criteria for assessing programs.

Coors addressed the issue of alcohol and nicotine in private communications with me. A spokesman stated that nicotine and alcohol are not the same ("equal partners") and the issues are much different. What's more, Coors established an alcohol department in 1981 to examine alcohol misuse problems and implement education programs to address these problems. It offers a public education program to encourage good decisions about alcohol. Also, the company funds research on how to promote moderate alcohol consumption among patrons. Further, the company is on record taking the perspective that alcohol misuse is a people problem, not a product problem (guns don't kill people...) Finally, the $25,000 award was used by Coors to fund five regional wellness community development workshops in 1990.

Fair enough -- but, how do YOU feel about Coors as a corporate wellness role model -- or about the recognition of any company that produces alcohol (or worse) being celebrated as a model institution due to its support of wellness awareness and programming?

I personally have no reservations about honoring Coors. In fact, I rather like Coors, both the product AND the company. Doing the right thing for all the right reasons seems like a mighty good thing. Further, beer is (as Coors points out and everybody knows) a legal product and the vast majority of patrons of Coors and other beers enjoy the stuff and use it responsibly. I thought the president of the company, Peter Coors, addressed this matter rather well at the company website, as follows: “Our business is making and selling beer, and we want our business to be successful. But, let me make this very clear: We do not want our products consumed by anyone under the legal drinking age. As I've said for many years, if you're under the legal drinking age, ‘We'll wait for your business.’ Once you've reached that age, it's your choice. As for adults, we want those who choose to drink our products to do so responsibly. For some adults, 'responsibly' means not drinking at all.”

Yet, there is a gnawing sense that Coors, the wellness champions of the Nation, could do more for loser-types who use the product badly. While Coors does run the standard "know when to say when" variety of ads every so often, I can't recall seeing any Coors ads pushing a wellness lifestyle. Why not suggest that wellness is a terrific thing for non-employees (the rest of the U.S. population) and particularly for consumers of Coors beer? If it's such a priority for Coors employees, why not promote WELLNESS, not just responsible drinking, to the rest of us, especially Coors drinkers? In other words, how about supplementing funds devoted to encouraging consumption of Coors to campaigns for lifestyle education?

Overall, however, it seems to me that accolades for Coors are well deserved. If you have an opinion on the matter, pro or con or otherwise, I’d love to hear from you, as I would even if you have no opinion on this topic at all! Feedback is good under any condition! Be well -- look on the bright side.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of adaptations and challenges. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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