Christmas season is the time when most people not only exchange gifts and send greetings, but also drink and say cheers. For some of us the second goes above the first, and here the problems begin. To address this, global brands, both alcohol and beverage ones, launch campaigns to promote moderate drinking. Recently, the soft-drink giant Coca-Cola rolled out the new round of its ‘Designated Driver’ initiative, and HEINEKEN started its new promotion of responsible alcohol consumption by launching a new extension of the ‘Open Your World’ global campaign of its flagship beer, Heineken. Under the new theme ‘Sunrise belongs to moderate drinkers’ unveiled this Christmas season, the brand is spreading the message of moderate drinking primarily on the web, via a range of platforms, including Heineken’s YouTube channel, Facebook fan page, Heineken.com and broadcast.

White can’t replace red when it comes to Coca-Cola. The carbonated drinks giant, which launched a white can (for the very first time in its history) for the winter season as part of the campaign aiming at raising awareness and funds for polar bears and their Arctic Home, is now introducing the traditional red cans, because the ‘snowy’ version got frosty reception, even though the product itself was not changed at all. Responding to consumers’ demand for the iconic red packaging, starting in early December the brand is switching the background of the limited-edition ‘Arctic Home’ cans to the traditional red, preserving the same ‘polar bear’ design.

From lip-locks to… poo. Benetton, the apparel brand which has recently launched its new campaign featuring kissing political leaders, now is exploring another facet of life, which is much less enjoyable. November is the month when World Toilet Day is celebrated (it’s marked on November 19), and the brand has dedicated the new edition of its COLORS magazine to this theme, which is usually not openly discussed. The Shit. A survival guide puts the everyday sanitation issues into the spotlight and invites readers to start exploring the ‘excrement’ problem. The more we are ignoring it, the more pressing it gets, so Benetton invites all of us to get informed about the fecal matter and start the conversation on a global scale.

Benetton, the international apparel brand, which is spreading the idea of love and unity across the globe with its hilarious promotional projects along with selling brightly colored sweaters and dresses, is now rolling out a new international campaign entitled UNHATE and launches a foundation of the same name to cultivate the principle of love and tolerance despite all religious, cultural, governmental, national and individual differences. The new multiplatform campaign developed by Fabrica Italy and 72andSunny includes a series of posters featuring modern political leaders from different ‘camps’ kissing each other (remember the legendary Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker’s smooch?) and an impressive 60-second spot by French director Laurent Chanez, which showcases the moments of love, kissing and embraces closely entwined with aggressiveness, fights and blood.