Free Coca-Cola for designated drivers - Latest car stories - MSN Cars UK

Designated drivers will be rewarded with free Coca-Cola drinks over the Christmas period as part of the annual THINK! drink drive safety campaign.

More than 8,000 pubs and student union bars are to offer the ‘buy one, get one free’ incentive on Coke soft drinks, between 9 December 2011 and 1 January 2012.

Coca-Cola has launched an online pub finder so people can search for pubs offering the free drink inventive.

The move is part of a £660,000 Christmas drink drive campaign that is already running, and which will be promoted on TV over the weekend. The high-profile incentive aims to drive home the message to young men in particular, who are consistently over-represented in drink drive casualty figures.

Men aged 17-29 are thus being targeted by a campaign that will include radio advertising, posters in pub toilets, online search activity and targeted Facebook advertising.

In launching the annual campaign, Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said the aim was to continue ongoing big reductions in drink drive deaths.

“The number of drink drive deaths has fallen by more than 75% since 1979, but drink driving is still devastating lives with around 250 people killed in collisions where a driver was over the limit last year.

“Our THINK! campaign makes it clear that drivers who get behind the wheel over the limit risk losing their licence as well as facing a fine and even a prison sentence.”

The deal with Coca-Cola, he said, was to reward to designated drivers as part of the government’s Drive Friendly initiative. This was launched two years ago and aims to support designated drivers with special promotions on on-alcoholic drinks.

“No one wants to spend their Christmas in a police cell,” he added. “My message is clear: don’t drink and drive.”

via cars.uk.msn.com

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