Heineken USA Reinforces Its Commitment to Responsibility During Tampa's Festival Caliente

Heineken USA Reinforces Its Commitment to Responsibility During Tampa's Festival Caliente

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Heineken USA, the official beer sponsor of the City of Tampa's Festival Caliente, a cultural extravaganza celebrating the vibrancy of Hispanic America, will again implement several important responsible consumption initiatives during this year's event, slated for Sunday, November 20, at Al Lopez Park, in an effort to create a safe and responsible drinking environment.

To help ensure that only individuals of legal age can purchase alcohol beverages at the Festival, Heineken will be using the services of Intelli-Check(R), the acknowledged leader in document and identification verification, to authenticate the validity of driver's licenses and identification cards. Event-goers wishing to drink beer at the Festival will all have their identification checked through Intelli-Check's(R) system. This technology will allow ID checkers to verify each ID either through a swipe check, similar to how one swipes a credit card at a store, or a plunge check, similar to how one uses an ATM card. Once Intelli-Check(R) verifies the individual is of legal age, the event-goer will be given a wristband, signifying that vendors may sell beer to that individual.

Heineken is also encouraging event-goers to take advantage of its unique responsible consumption program called SAFE CALL(TM). The program is designed to provide consumers who may have had too much to drink, a toll-free and easy-to-remember phone number to prevent them from driving while intoxicated. As part of this effort, Heineken has partnered with 1-800-TAXICAB(TM), North America's largest telephone-based taxi referral service. Consumers need only ring this toll-free phone number from a local phone 24 hours a day to call for a taxi to safely take them home. Their call is automatically patched through to a taxi company in their local area, which will then dispatch a cab to their location.

"Heineken USA is a proud sponsor of Festival Caliente and its goal of celebrating the richness of Latino culture in the United States," said Dan Tearno, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Heineken USA. "We want everyone to have a great time at the Festival and by implementing SAFE CALL(TM) and utilizing the Intelli-Check(R) machines, we will help ensure that Heineken products are consumed responsibly by event-goers."

ABOUT HEINEKEN USA

Heineken USA Inc., the nation's largest beer importer, is a subsidiary of Heineken N.V. (Netherlands), which is the world's third-largest brewer. Brands imported into the U.S. include: Heineken Lager, the world's most international beer brand, Amstel Light, the largest-selling imported light beer brand, and Buckler non-alcoholic brew. Please visit http://www.enjoyheinekenresponsibly.com/.

ABOUT 1-800-TAXICAB

Los Angeles-based 1-800-TAXICAB(TM) is North America's taxicab network. Passengers across North America can call the toll-free and easy-to-remember numbers 1-800-TAXICAB to be immediately connected to a local taxi dispatcher.

ABOUT INTELLI-CHECK

Intelli-Check(R), Inc., the acknowledged leader in document verification has developed a patented technology to verify the validity of all currently encoded state and provincial driver licenses, state issued ID cards and military IDs including those that comply with AAMVA/ANSI/International Organization of Standardization standards. The technology is fully capable of detecting fake, altered and tampered IDs, which can be used to prevent fines and penalties to merchants who unknowingly sell age-restricted products such as alcohol and tobacco to underage purchasers.

Source: Heineken USA Inc.

CONTACT: Tamara Moore of Heineken USA, +1-914-681-4153,
tmoore@heinekenusa.com; or David Bray of Euro RSCG Magnet, +1-212-367-6824,
david.bray@eurorscg.com, for Heineken USA Inc.

Web site: http://www.enjoyheinekenresponsibly.com/

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