PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAUREL GOLIO
These days socialization is all about empowerment and choice. People want to be able to decide for themselves what and whether they are drinking, just like they do with other aspects of their lives, says Christine Hasbún VP, Head of Consumer Planning at Diageo North America, a global beverage company with a leading portfolio of alcoholic and adult non-alcoholic beverage brands. This is especially true of Millennials and Gen Zers of legal drinking age.
'I think people are kind of moving away from that very black and white, super hard line demarcation, and they're going into a place where there's more options, it's more fluid, it connects more with their lifestyle,' says Hasbún.
Diageo has embraced this concept by developing a 'Cheers to Choice' bar it pops up at events around the country. The idea is to present consumers with a full range of options across the spectrum from alcoholic to lower alcohol to non-alcoholic.
'It's an effort to meet people where they are and educate them about choices and a new way to think about consumption, whether they choose to have alcohol or not,' says Stephanie Childs, Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations, Diageo North America.
We're living in a world where we've got people coming into alcohol with an expectation that they can choose to not drink more, but drink better.
Christine Hasbún
Just as a person would order gelato one day and drink an oat milk latte the following day without giving the switch from dairy to a dairy alternative a second thought, they might have a Negroni one day and a non-alcoholic Guinness 0 the next; or even on the same night. The trend of alternating between alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks is called zebra striping—and it's growing in popularity. According to recent research, 94 percent of consumers who buy adult non-alc products also purchase beer, wine, or spirits containing alcohol. It's not an either/or situation.
But it might just be a better situation. Take Gen Z. 'There's this belief that Gen Z is drinking less. Or they're not drinking. Or they hate alcohol. 'That's actually not exactly true,' says Hasbún. 'What they're doing is drinking less beer and wine, and instead they've embraced spirits and cocktails.'
Case in point: The cheap beer and a burger of the previous generation—or the drunken, stumbling slice of pizza—has been replaced by the New York Happy Meal, an adult version of the treat consisting of a martini and french fries. 'We're living in a world where we've got people coming into alcohol with an expectation that they can choose to not drink more, but drink better,' says Hasbún. 'It's this realization that you can deliberately control what you consume.'
And as for moderation? That's not just Gen Z or Millennials either. It's a trend that spans generations. Nor is it an entirely new thing.
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