Just when I started getting into the game, Smirnoff Ice goes ahead and gets brosicingbros.com shut down.
For those of you unfamiliar, Bros icing Bros is a game where you present a Smirnoff ice to a friend (or enemy) and they are obligated to commence on one knee and chug it.
I don’t know about you, but if I had to take a guess, most people are not opting for a Smirnoff ice as their drink of choice and chances are sales were not particularly phenomenal. This is exactly what a brand like Smirnoff needed. Tons and tons of free publicity, a game dedicated to their product, that basically every frat boy, or for that matter, “bros” in corporate America are involved in which requires the purchase of their product.
Even if they had no involvement in the game, this couldn’t have been a better situation for them. Completely free publicity, and a game that is dedicated entirely to their brand . I was reading in local papers how bars had started restocking smirnoff ice which they haven’t carried in years because of the popularity of the bros icing bros game.
Smirnoff, I get it, you don’t want your name associated with some “he-man” type game dedicated to abusing your product, I really do get it. But you know what, this kind of viral publicity is what most brands dream of! This could have been the answer to all your problems. Is there a certain liability associated with bros icing bros that I am unaware of? And even though you deny having any part of the “bros icing bros” game, between you and me, if that was part of some Guerrilla Marketing campaign, then a truly well executed plan that spread nationally in weeks. Not sure why you shut it down, but well done!
But if you really did have no part in it, then whats wrong with you!!! you should have just been thankful for the increase in sales of a drink that I would guess probably wasn’t the beverage of choice until the game.
The brands everywhere: Yeah, it sucks to get your brand made fun of, but when your sales increase, the brand ego may hurt but your pockets wont. So swallow your pride and just run with it.
The ironic part of all this, shutting down the bros icing bros site may actually increase Smirnoff ice sales sending the message, in protest, “you want this game to disappear? well now its going to get much worse than before”.
We have seen this before (see: O RLY?)
I would be curious as to how this turns out. What do you think?
