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Bros Icing Bros
About
Bros Icing Bros is a popular drinking game prank in real life that occurred first in colleges in the South before spreading online in mid-2010. The game is based on the following rules:
Origin
On April 5th, 2010, the single topic blog Brosicingbros.com launched as a hub for all media related to the drinking game of the same name with the aforementioned rules. The game is supposedly the brainchild of a group of South Carolina college students to which the game started to spread statewide. All that is known about the founder is that he is a 22-year-old recent college grad who goes by "Joe". He does not respond to email communication. The site allowed users to submit pictures or videos of people getting iced of which the best content would be uploaded to the blog.
As word spread about the game it would be reported on and publicized by publications such as the Huffington Post and Village Voice.
Celebrities who have been iced include rapper Coolio, actor Dustin Diamond aka Screech, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin who rejected the ice.
Diageo, the company that makes Smirnoff Ice, prior to the start of Bros Icing Bros was reporting sluggish sales of their malt beverage. Many stories on this topic accused Diageo of starting the blog as a viral marketing campaign. Diageo released an official statement on the matter:
Icing is consumer-generated and some people think it is fun. We never want underage "icing" and we always want responsible drinking.
The inherent dangers of icing are the same with any other binge consumption drinking game, but as part of the surprise aspect of the game icing in public venues is also a danger, and illegal in many parts of the world.
Spread
Brosicingbros.com launched April 5th, 2010.
Bros Icing Bros: Your Latest Internet Meme on The Village Voice blog on May 17th, 2010
Bros Icing Bros on the College Humor Staff Blog on May 20th, 2010
Bros Icing Bros on Urlesque on May 21st, 2010
Bros Icing Bros: The Drinking Trend That May be an Advertising Conspiracy on Gawker on May 21st, 2010
Guest Op Ed: Why Bros Get Iced, Bro on The Awl on May 21st, 2010
Bros Icing Bros on Buzzfeed on May 22nd, 2010
Bros Icing Bros on Wall Street on Asylum on May 24th, 2010
Don't ice me, Bro! on CNNMoney.com on May 26th, 2010
Bros Icing Bros: the Movie on IFC.com May 26th, 2010
Bros Icing Bros on The Sly Oyster on May 26th, 2010
Bros Icing Bros: A How-To Documentary on Vimeo May 25th, 2010
Insight
By examining the Google Insights trend, it would seem that searches for "bros icing bros" came only after much of the press attention.
Death and Possible Rebirth?
On June 16th, 2010, brosicingbros.com went offline, displaying only a message that reads "We had a good run bros."
The Village Voice got in contact with the folks from Brobible.com, who claim that the people behind brosicingbros.com wanted to sell them the domain, but have actually sold it to someone else. Who that someone else is remains uncertain at this moment.
Link: Village Voice article.
Excerpt:
The BrosIcingBros guys approached us a couple days ago, inquiring if we were interested in purchasing their site. The move made sense -- they were getting a ton of traffic and media attention over the past couple weeks, and they sported 20,000 Facebook fans. Their asking price, however, didn't make any sense. They wanted a minimum of five figures (five figures!), and gave us and other likeminded sites until "Friday" to make our best bid. Considering we were thinking of offering about five cases of grape, pineapple, and passion fruit Ices for the site, we weren't too chagrined to see that someone snatched it up with apparently an offer they couldn't refuse. We're guessing the site will relaunch or redirect within the next day or two, and there may or may not be plenty of more Icing photos to post (they get about 100 submissions a day and only post five or six).
