by Adeena Schlussel on behalf of Daniel Lubetzky
Smirnoff Ice, a sugary alcoholic beverage, has become the key ingredient to the latest popular drinking game known as “icing.” When approached with a Smirnoff Ice, the recipient is required to get down on one knee and chug the whole bottle (unless of course he is armed with the same drink, in which case his benefactor is required to drink both). While Smirnoff denies any association with the drinking game that has created amazing free advertising to their benefit, it is possible that a tiny group of consumers truly started it, but then the company discreetly buttressed it. As the New York Times put it, “[t]he game has exposed the mercurial line between guerrilla advertising and genuine social media trends, raising questions about how young consumers can know when they have co-opted a brand for their own purposes, and when that brand has co-opted them.”
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