As a new drinking game gains viral popularity, University students are packing heat by packing Ice — Smirnoff Ice.The game, called “Bros Icing Bros,” is one of sly creativity in which bottles of Smirnoff Ice are hidden where one would least expect. When someone finds the bottle, he has been “iced” and must kneel on one knee, put one hand behind his back and chug the entire bottle.Participating in the game is a permanent state of being, said Tipton Pearce, a landscape architecture junior who plays the game. Players can never deny a bottle when they are iced.”Denial equals expulsion from the game,” Pearce said.The game’s goal is finding the most creative places to hide the bottles. Pearce said his best idea was icing a friend by putting the bottle in a fish tank.General studies sophomore Zoe Wissner said though the game is most commonly played by males, she and some of her female friends have joined the fun, though under a slightly altered name.”It’s not exactly the most flattering of titles, but you could call it ‘Bros Icing Hos,'” she said.The game gained traction with the creation of BrosIcingBros.com, a website where users could upload pictures and video of their friends being iced.Wissner said creative methods seen on the site, such as hiding a Smirnoff bottle in a hollowed watermelon, inspired her friends to develop numerous inventive ways to ice each other, including hiding a bottle in a bag of chips or disguising it as a burrito.In addition to finding clever ways to ice friends, one of the appeals of the game is forcing men to drink Smirnoff Ice, which is generally regarded as a women’s drink, Wissner said.”They’re super sugary and generally thought of as kind of a girls’ drink, so part of it is it’s mildly embarrassing for a bro to have to drink this feminine drink,” she said.Pearce said the appeal of surprising friends with “terrible alcohol” has created a demand for Smirnoff Ice that didn’t exist before.”I’ve drank more Smirnoff Ice in the last two weeks than I have in my entire life,” Pearce said.The growing popularity of Bros Icing Bros has boosted more than players’ blood alcohol content. Sales of the drink have soared at American Market on Nicholson Drive, according to clerk Karen Vong.Vong said she learned about the game a month ago when she noticed more men than usual buying Smirnoff Ice.American Market typically ordered one case of Smirnoff Ice per week before the game’s spike in popularity, Vong said. But during the last month, she said the store has ordered four cases per week.Though the game has increased sales of the drink, Smirnoff’s parent company Diageo has maintained it had nothing to do with the game’s creation and has worked to distance itself from the phenomenon, which has been called conducive to irresponsible drinking.”Diageo has taken measures to stop this misuse of its Smirnoff Ice brand and marks, and to make it clear that ‘icing’ does not comply with our marketing code,” the company said in a statement.BrosIcingBros.com has since closed, and now the page contains only the phrase, “We had a good run Bros.”Though the game has been cited for increased sales, distancing itself from the meme was the best option for the company from a business standpoint, said Judith Anne Garretson Folse, marketing professor.”The easy decision is the one they actually made — to make sure they safeguard the reputation of the organization for the long term,” Folse said. “Though there may be a short term spike in sales, that increase is not worth any kind of negative image associated with the brand because of this viral activity.”Folse said making a public statement against the game will benefit the company in some consumers’ eyes.”They will be viewed as more socially responsible because of their coming out and letting the public know they were not responsible for this game that put their brand in negative light among some consumers,” she said.Pearce said the game has limits, just like any drinking game, and that he would never ice someone in a precarious situation, such as when they were driving.”Funny and dangerous aren’t always the same thing,” Pearce said.Though Diageo has renounced Bros Icing Bros, Folse said it may still see some benefits from being associated with this buzzworthy meme.”Any time an organization gains more awareness, then consumers will consider that brand more than they would have otherwise,” Folse said.Pearce said the website’s removal won’t affect his continued participation in the game.”I don’t give a shit about the websites — it’s all about sweet revenge for me,” he said.The fun of games like this and pranks in general come from creating humor by being “in” on a joke, said Loretta Pecchioni, communication studies professor.”Often what’s really funny is funny because you know you’re an insider,” she said. “You get the joke because you have background information or previous experience.”Pecchioni said pulling pranks in the age of Facebook and YouTube give pranks the added dimension of sharing it to a larger audience.”If you can get more people to see it, you can brag, ‘I had 8,000 or 8 million hits,'” Pecchioni said. “It’s an ego boost.”–Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]