Today the government’s Responsibility Deal was made public, along with the names of 170 companies that have signed up to its various well-meaning pledges.

Admittedly, some of the government’s thunder was stolen by yesterday’s spoiler from half a dozen health groups that would rather see legislators whip out the big stick of regulation than leave matters to the industry.

But the coalition will point to the level of buy-in from the trade as evidence of its genuine enthusiasm to improve public health. Most crucially from a PR point of view, all the big supermarkets have signed up. And so have drinks makers like Diageo, SAB Miller and Carlsberg.

Also getting on board is Heineken, which has used the fun and games for the (very) soft launch of a reduced-abv version of one of its major brands. So soft, in fact, that we aren’t sure which one yet.

“This is work in progress and the specific details of the brand and alcohol content reduction have yet to be confirmed,” the company said in a statement.

Strongbow seems an obvious contender, its 5.3% abv leaving plenty of room for manoeuvre. Certainly a reduction for Heineken itself would represent quite a U-turn, less than a decade after the 3.4% version unique to the UK was ditched.

On the other hand, Heineken will surely have noted with interest the success of Stella 4, so perhaps a 4% Kronenbourg could be a goer.

Whatever happens, it’s all very civic-minded of the Dutch brewer. But as a contrite Todd Stitzer noted today in a rueful opinion piece for The Times, doing the right thing can also be good for business.

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