The Cinnamon Challenge

By Sunniva Hoff Finnoey

The cinnamon challenge is to eat a tablespoon of cinnamon in 60 seconds, and then post it on you tube. The challenge is to swallow the powder without vomit or inhale it, which is very difficult since the mouth is drying out when you are trying to swallow. The first you tube video was uploaded in 2006 which was called the “Pipe Attempts Cinnamon Challenge”, but that was 5 years after the first challenge was posted on a blog by Michael Buffington. Throughout 2006, there were many similar videos uploaded, but the one who got the most attention was Anna Diaz in 2011. The video almost got 4 millions views in the first two months and there were also uploaded many imitations from all over the world. 

This is the most watched video of the cinnamon challenge on youtube with 26 786 208 views.  The popularity of the concept was highest this year, but the interest has now decreased. 

This graph shows how the search interest developed from 2004 to current time. There is also a Cinnamon Challenge group on Facebook with almost 1200 likes, where people are still posting videos.

The reason for why this concept became so popular might be that it sounds so simple to just swallow a spoon of powder. According to the videos it is obvious that it is not and people react in the craziest way when they discover how uncomfortable it is, by throwing up, coughing and get cinnamon all over their face. It also does not look like anybody has accomplished to swallow a tablespoon yet.