The ugly holiday sweater trend lives on. In honor of designated drivers this holiday season, Budweiser UK has assembled a knitting device, the KnitBot, to craft one holiday sweater each time the hashtag #jumpers4des is mentioned on Twitter. Fans of Budweiser UK (or prospective designated drivers) can enter to win a machine-made sweater on Facebook and Twitter from now until 10 am on December 6th.
Check out our special Christmas jumpers – our knitting machine is powered by #Jumpers4Des, so keep it coming! pic.twitter.com/qNrI6NSLjs
— Budweiser UK (@BudweiserUK) December 2, 2013
Budweiser seems to be borrowing the campaign idea from Pampers, who celebrated the birth of the royal baby this past August by robo-knitting a gigantic blanket composed of “best wishes” submitted by Twitter followers.
Though there are countless holiday sweaters available online (from cute to hideously ugly — and everything in between) and in Salvation Armies nationwide, Budweiser decided to create the KnitBot and drum up some social engagement (and provide some thanks to those poor designated drivers.)
Each sweater will have the requisite number of snowflakes and reindeer, with the added Budweiser slogan “celebrate responsibly” to highlight the beverage company’s continued efforts to discourage drunk driving. Back in May, Anheuser Busch launched the first ever “social responsibility blimp” with a mobile billboard reminding adults to drink responsibly, though judging from the @budblimp account (with just 574 followers) it wasn’t hugely popular on social media.
On Facebook, Budweiser encouraged fans to “keep tweeting and look out for a giveaway on here in December!” As of this posting, KnitBot has (presumably) knitted about 40 sweaters and counting.
Some tweeters were quite excited about the concept:
Seriously want the @BudweiserUK knitbot to make me an Xmas jumper! #jumpers4des #DesignateADriver
— Eniola Aluko (@EniAlu) November 26, 2013
Watch the video here:
