on bros icing bros

by now you’ve probably heard of the bros icing bros meme.  i’ve iced a bro, and been iced by a bro (technically a sis).  essentially, if a bro hands you a smirnoff ice, you have to take a knee and chug it.  but if you happen to have an ice on you, and why wouldn’t you, you can counter-ice the attempted icer and now said bro has to chug both ices.  it’s retarded and kinda hilarious.

naturally, the internets are alive with conspiracy theories claiming this is all a viral marketing hoax perpetrated by smirnoff to boost sales.  that’s almost as ridiculous as the game itself.

first off, smirnoff is not that smart.  second, they’re also not that stupid.  look at their most recent ad campaign:

the goal is to position smirnoff ice as the cool drink that creates memories amongst friends.  tell me how that jives with a guerilla marketing campaign predicated on the idea that smirnoff ice is both disgusting and girly.  it doesn’t.  and no company, no matter how savvy they want to be, would willingly disparage it’s own product to increase sales.  it’s bad branding and it’s bad business, a short-term gain that creates an even bigger image problem down the road.

bros might be buying more smirnoff ice right now, but it’s to punish their friends by making them drunk a bottle of gut-rot.  the product is still regarded as shit and this supposed viral marketing campaign has done nothing to change that image.  in fact, it’s reinforcing it.  brilliant move, smirnoff.

more likely than not, it’s just some stupid game of frat-boy nut-punching that’s been co-opted by hipsters.  you’re all giving smirnoff way too much credit here.  or not enough.

next you’re going to try to tell me that the milk challenge was cooked up by the dairy council.

-srd