The 'Barbie Shake' TikTok trend explained

In anticipation for the release of the Barbie movie later this month US ice-cream chain Cold Stone Creamery has launched its Barbie Shake.

The cotton candy flavoured milkshake has found itself at the centre of a new TikTok trend similar to the recent Grimace craze over TikTok.

On TikTok, users - especially men - are filming themselves taking a sip of the milkshake, twirling, and being transformed into an outfit that would make Barbie proud. Often with Aqua’s iconic 'Barbie World' playing in the background. Whilst some users opted for Nicki Mina and Ice Spice’s version which is part of the movie’s soundtrack.

It’s essentially the opposite of the Grimace shake trend, where people pretend that McDonald’s mascot shake is making them extremely ill. Instead, the Barbie shake makes you feel fabulous.

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It’s unclear how the recent trend started. According to KnowYourMeme, users began joking that they had been “yassified” after drinking the shake, and eventually, it leaked over onto TikTok, roughly around early July.

The hashtag #barbieshake has over 6 million views. One user uploaded a video of himself being transformed by the shake, which now has almost 2 million views and over 300k likes. Another user who goes by the name Catinator, has over 600k likes and shows him spinning around and finding himself in a pink dress and blonde wig in true Barbie fashion.

Of course, some are putting their own twist on the trend, with user @ceekayyefilmed filming herself drinking the shake and instead of transforming into Barbie they transformed in J. Robert Oppenheimer, the atomic bomb scientist. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is releasing the same day as “Barbie”.

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