The troubling foodie challenges fuelled by social media

Years later the tongue-in-cheek, trashpost recipe was revived from the dead and would go viral on social media, prompting widespread parental panic, jokes on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, and a US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) public health alert.

NyQuil is one of countless supermarket products that have found themselves at the centre of bizarre online challenges and crazes – many coming seemingly from nowhere to ruin brand reputations, send consumers into a panic and, in some cases, lead to death. The power of viral trends can see kids chomping laundry detergent pods, trying to trip off nutmeg cocktails, and overdosing on Benadryl.

Even in less extreme cases, misinformation about products and suggestions of misuse in handy ‘hacks’ work to undermine trust in brands. And joining this type of content in social media feeds are countless nutritional and diet trends that promise quick and easy fixes – primarily around weight loss – that put consumers at risk in more insidious ways.

So, how and why do these trends come about and take hold? And when a brand finds itself caught up in one, what’s the best way to respond?

The last thing any brand wants to be associated with is causing consumers harm. Social media challenges represent the greatest risk of this happening. Typically, they encourage users to create videos showing themselves performing a specific action – which works wonders in marketing terms when it’s planted by the brand.

“At their heart, these trends offer a sense of social validation and connection, allowing people to bond with one another through shared participation in an activity, even online,” says Megan Boyle, head of organic social at TAL Agency.

“The often irresistible appeal of tackling a personal challenge or completing a trend can also give people a sense of accomplishment and boost self-esteem. Coupled with the drive for exposure and potential fame, this motivates people to join in. FOMO (fear of missing out) also has a lot to answer for – seeing people take part in a trend and go viral creates a sense of urgency to participate and stay relevant.”

But for brands, challenges are a nightmare when, say, a random user films themselves eating a Tide detergent pod on YouTube, and others jump to do the same.

“Even if a challenge seems ridiculous or risky, it’s all about being in on the joke or thrill,” says Jessica Summer, founder and CEO of Mouse & Grape, which won a social media award for its April Fool’s cheese and wine in a can campaign this year.

“In such a fast-paced environment, there’s an excitement around seeing who can take things further, and that instant attention – the likes and shares – is what people chase. The public try these trends despite the often obvious dangers because they underestimate the risks or think the shock factor is worth it for the attention.”

Plus, social media algorithms are servants to whatever is buzzing right now, which “amplifies trends so quickly they can snowball, with more and more participants drawn in by the excitement of going viral”, Summer adds.

Troubling trends: how to respond

There are a range of options brands can consider if they see their products involved in a risky viral trend.

Do nothing is certainly one option. But it brings its own risks. “Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to responding to these situations,” says Megan Redmond, head of influence at influencer marketing agency Redpill, which has worked with Bacardi and Waitrose. “We’ve seen some brands stay silent, hoping to ride out the trend with as little damage to the brand as possible.”

But “staying silent isn’t an option”, says Thomas Walters, Europe CEO and co-founder of influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy, which has worked with Heineken, Sainsbury’s, L’Oréal and PepsiCo.  “When the trend is dangerous or misinformed, brands ultimately need to act responsibly and prioritise consumer health and safety. Otherwise, capitalising on a harmful trend can appear reckless, opportunistic and could negatively backfire on the brand’s reputation.”

Instead, brands caught up in a potentially harmful trend can respond loud and clear. “They should start by issuing a strong safety warning, clearly communicating the dangers associated with the trend and providing educational resources to prevent misuse,” says Boyle.

But even this seemingly sensible approach can have unintended consequences, such as boosting awareness. When NyQuil chicken began bubbling on social media back in 2022 – primarily on TikTok – brand owner P&G issued a rather uninspiring statement across social media: “Consumer safety is our number one priority, and we do not endorse inappropriate use of our product,” while reiterating the directed dosage.

The FDA went far further. Aimed at parents, a YouTube video and blog warned: “Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. Even if you don’t eat the chicken, inhaling the medication’s vapours while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body. It could also hurt your lungs. Put simply: someone could take a dangerously high amount of the cough and cold medicine without even realising it.”

The effort gained widespread coverage, often from publications that would rarely report on social media trends but keenly cover government warnings. According to data supplied by TikTok to BuzzFeed News, there had been only five searches for NyQuil chicken content on the app on the day before the FDA posted its statement. Within six days afterwards, that number had increased to about 7,000.

“Coverage of digital trends frequently becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, where reports of emergent trends or controversies actually serve to propagate the behaviours that are being reported on,” Andrew Peck, a  Miami University folklore academic, writes in A Problem of Amplification: Folklore and Fake News in the Age of Social Media.

Notably, Tide’s consumer perception level sunk in the wake of the Tide pod challenge’s coverage (see box, left), according to YouGov BrandIndex – but the proportion of people saying they would consider buying the brand in their next shop actually increased. “Perhaps a ‘reverse psychology’ moment [occurred], where consumers who had never bought or heard of the product may now consider buying it,” BrandIndex concluded.

“Unfortunately, you cannot just sit back and use the ‘any PR is good PR’ approach to social media trends,” says chef and home writer Monika Sudakov. “Not only can it negatively impact your business, but it feels irresponsible, especially where the wellbeing of consumers is involved.

“It can be a good opportunity for a brand to put out content that contradicts the trend, informing consumers of the correct ways to use its products and showing them better alternatives that may be safer, yet appeal to their need for something that may be quicker, easier, and cheaper. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to address the underlying issue that the trend is seeking to capitalise on.”

In Tide’s case, it got its brand ambassador, American football player Rob ‘Gronk’ Gronkowski, to record a selfie-style video with the message: “What the heck is going on, people? Use Tide pods for washing. Not eating. Do not eat.”

“The brand addressed the audience in a lighthearted way, using humour to make people understand the dangers and really think: ‘why am I eating washing detergent?’” says Redmond. “Tide’s response was a success because it was on brand and spoke directly to the audience it was trying to target. While there is no definitive answer to the best way to respond to viral challenges, more brands can learn from this response, addressing danger head-on in a way that makes the desired audience listen.”

Dangerous ‘life hacks’

More insidious than bizarre challenges are the endless health hacks that flood social media. Some recent examples: drinking chlorophyll water to cure fatigue, acne or even body odour; ‘dry-scooping’, whereby pre-workout supplement powder is swallowed without mixing it with water; or weight loss hack ‘budget Ozempic’, usually referring to laxatives and stool softeners.

An April study by Dublin City University (DCU) commissioned by MyFitnessPal analysed about 67,000 such videos on TikTok, using AI to compare them against public health and nutrition guidelines. Preliminary findings suggest only 2.1% of the analysed nutrition content proved to be accurate.

“The challenge is that many people want a simple, and normally quick, answer,” says dietician and science communicator Duane Mellor. “This can often focus on just one or two foods or aspects of the diet, hence things like ‘the egg diet’ or ‘cabbage soup diet’. Unfortunately, some influencers support these types of messages, as they’re often appealing and can get lots of clicks and engagement.”

The issue is that, for most users, the content is easier to swallow than a Tide pod. The DCU research found 87% of millennial and Gen Z TikTok users had used the platform for nutrition and health advice rather than consulting friends, family or medical professionals. Worryingly, 57% said they’re influenced by or frequently adopt nutrition trends they’ve found on the platform, and 67% of those said they adopt at least one of these trends a few times a week. Around a third said they’d experienced an adverse effect from these ‘fad diet’ trends.

It’s a similar story for household brands, whose products get used in time-saving cleaning hacks. “Everyone wants to make a meal or perform a mundane household chore in less time and spend less money doing so,” says Sudakov. “It comes from a place of just wanting to make life easier.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures. This can lead to people doing impulsive things that may not make sense if they thought about it more thoroughly, but when they’re trying to make ends meet, maintain a full-time job, take care of a family, keep their relationships going and manage a household, time is precious and a miracle solution that seems too good to be true has greater appeal.”

In such cases, brands and debunkers must speak out.

“With more people turning to social media for health advice, it’s critical for us as a community to enhance our digital health literacy,” says DCU’s Professor Theo Lynn. “This involves being aware of the expertise, authority and trustworthiness of the source. It’s important to understand that these viral TikTok trends often lack the rigour of controlled experiments and evidence-based scientific consensus, and, therefore, should not be trusted as a reliable source of information.”

Debunking videos don’t work

It’s an uphill struggle. A University of Regina study last year found only “moderate evidence for the effectiveness” of ‘debunking’ videos on TikTok. More encouragingly, content that breaks down the latest health or household trends is proving hugely popular on social media platforms, and fact-checking influencers have ever-increasing clout.

In a world of mad memes and outlandish trends, brands must be hyper-aware of what’s happening on social media and highly measured in their response.

Social media’s “rapid-fire nature can mean trends quickly spiral out of control, sometimes in ways that conflict with a brand’s values or image”, says Ric Hayes, group strategy director at SocialChain, which has worked with Jameson whiskey, KFC and Holland & Barrett. “It can propel brands into the spotlight, or pull them into uncharted and sometimes risky territory.”

Ultimately, he adds, “prepare for the unexpected”.