These People Thought They Were Singing Karaoke For A Few Friends - But The Actual Audience Was Much, Much Larger

Ah, karaoke and alcohol - the two complement each other perfectly.

That's why it was so easy for Heineken to lure participants into its Carol Karaoke promotion, which invited New Yorkers at Karaoke Boho in the West Village to step into Heineken's special booth and pick a classic Christmas carol to sing.

These karaoke stars had no problem singing "Jingle Bells" horribly off-key to a couple friends and a Heineken rep, but a few lines into the song, a curtain was pulled aside to reveal a camera. And it was ready to begin streaming in front of thousands of people on a Jumbotron at an NBA game, on a giant screen in Times Square, or in every taxi in New York.

They were given a choice to either quietly walk away or continue their carol. Take a look at the video below to see how our lucky participants responded:

Heineken's U.S. ad agency, Wieden + Kennedy, produced the event as a spinoff of this holiday season's "Open Your Celebration" campaign, which will introduce four limited-edition bottle labels celebrating Heineken's history.

Wieden + Kennedy and the beer brand have collaborated on plenty of other interactive promotions, like September's Instagram scavenger hunt that awarded winners with tickets to the U.S. Open Men's Final.

For the 2011 holiday season, the two created a Facebook promotion to help users to to hide their selfishness by allowing them to buy small beer taps for themselves that were then sent to the buyer's house wrapped as a gift from another participant.

Here's what this year's limited-edition bottles look like:

Heineken