Icing: New Viral Drinking Game Explained

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - When you hear the term "icing" these days it likely has nothing to do with finishing touches on a cake or the condition of your windshield on a winter morning.

Icing has become a viral binge drinking game. It's played like this: you hand a friend a sugary Smirnoff Ice malt beverage. Your friend (usually a male in this game) must then drop to a knee and drink it all at once. But if he is already carrying a bottle, the attacker must drink both bottles.

The Bros Icing Bros website explains :

1.)You cannot refuse an Ice. If you refuse to drink the Ice, you are instantly excommunicated and shunned, and thus can never Ice another bro or be Iced. 2.) If you are Iced by another bro, you can Ice block. When presented w/ an Ice, you can pull out an Ice of your own and reverse the Ice on your bro. The ultimate Ice insult.

Photos of people playing the game have popped up on blogs, Facebook , Twitter, YouTube and BrosIcingBros.com .

Smirnoff has denied it is behind the drinking game. But icing has created an uncomfortable position for Smirnoff and its parent company, London-based Diageo, a marketing specialist tells The New York Times .

"Beyond the implicit slur on the beverage's taste, I doubt any alcoholic beverage company would want to be associated with a drinking game that stretches the boundaries of good taste and common sense like this one does," Dick Martin, a former executive vice president of AT&T and the author of several books on branding, tells the Times. "It's too obviously a self-destruct button on all their 'drink responsibly' advertising."

Its spread is helped by participation from college students, young professionals and minor celebrities, including the rapper Coolio , members of the rock band The National and actor Dustin Diamond .