This week's Hotshot sees Heineken storm the viral charts with a little help from Blink's Ben Wheatley and agency Ruby as their latest interactive campaign uncovers exactly what can go wrong when you don't know your limits.

Marking an interesting break from the usual brand message booze commercials, Heineken has shifted away from showcasing its beverage with a lifestyle proposition and is instead choosing to focus on what can go wrong when you don't know your limits.

The interactive campaign was launched with a low-quality internet clip, The Wedding Crasher, that sets the tone for an immersive online experience at www.knowthesigns.com, where users are plunged into a bar full of revellers and asked to pick out who they think is showing signs of having had one too many.

Since seeding online last week The Wedding Crasher clip has already picked up over a million hits on YouTube alone, with total views across video platforms pushing that figure over the 2m mark. The video footage, with customary out of focus camera work that looks like it's been shot on a low-end camcorder, illustrates just how trollied you don't want to be, as what starts off as a slightly embarrassing pole-swinging session soon descends into chaos with the collapse of the marquee and the bride's blood on the dance floor.

Blink director Ben Wheatley shot the viral six times and managed to pull off a very authentic-looking wedding gone bad. "As soon as we saw the campaign we rubbed our hands and giggled. We knew there was an opportunity here to be very brave," he enthuses.

The Wedding Crasher is joined by two other unbranded films that were released onto the internet last week, as part of the second phase of a digital global campaign created by advertising agency Ruby. Propping up the viral and interactive web experience is an iPhone Breathalyzer app that invites users to pre-select one of the seven characters from the website - ranging from an out-of-control groper to an inebriated exhibitionist - before passing their phone over to a friend to blow into the mic and receive the bad news about their over the limits drunken behaviour. The campaign also boasts a Facebook group.

And all of this from Heineken, rather than an alcohol watchdog group. Ruby's David Miller says the iconic beer manufacturer wanted to encourage people to drink responsibly as a way of actively engaging with its consumers.

"Heineken want to communicate a serious message about responsible drinking. Our consumers wanted to discuss the subject in a way that was relevant and open to them," explains Miller, "so it made sense to engage with consumers rather than talk at them, and a digital platform is perfect to achieve these goals

Heineken is no stranger to trying to associate its brand with responsible drinking. In 2003 it was the first brewer to introduce a responsibility message on every can and bottle, linked to an educational website outlining the impact of over-consuming alcohol.

The viral stitched in with the website and interactive component has garnered attention from mainstream news media, with British tabloid News of the World breaking the story that the online films are in fact fake and part of Heineken's latest cheeky campaign.

Wheatley believes the huge response to the campaign is because the viral resonates so strongly with the public. "It works well because it is funny and safe for work."