Was the #CharlieCharlieChallenge nothing more than a viral marketing stunt?

TORONTO – The collective Internet may have been fooled by a viral marketing campaign once again.

The #CharlieCharlieChallenge, which took over social media last week, is now said to be nothing more than a viral marketing campaign for The Gallows, an upcoming horror film from Warner Bros.

A new trailer for the movie shows a group of teens playing the game, before one is dragged out of the scene screaming. The trailer was uploaded to YouTube May 27 – just days after the hashtag went viral on social media.

The so-called “Charlie Charlie” challenge climbed its way up the trending topics charts on social media as teens shared videos participating in the supposed supernatural game.

Participants drew a grid on a piece of paper with “yes” and “no” in the boxes and then balanced two pencils on top of each other to create a cross. Then someone chanted, “Charlie, Charlie, can we play?” or “Charlie, Charlie, are you here?” in hopes that the pencil would move, landing on either “yes” or “no.”

Thousands of videos, showing teens screaming, freaking out and shouting expletives in reaction to the challenge, have been uploaded since.

Variations of the game have been passed around Spanish-language social media sites for years – but because it wasn’t clear what caused the hashtag to become so popular, many now assume it was started as a marketing campaign for the movie.

But not everyone is convinced.

Other trailers for The Gallows show the movie centres around a bunch of students trying to recreate an old high school play which results in the death of one of the students – appropriately named Charlie.

But, as a report from The Independent points out, older trailers for the film to do not show students summoning the demon through the game, but through messing with the theatre.

It’s possible that the movie jumped on the #CharlieCharlieChallenge bandwagon in hopes of promoting the film further after the hashtag began trending.

Additionally, the reference to the #CharlieCharlieChallenge only appears in the Spanish language Warner Bros. YouTube page. Many believe the game can be traced back to a version of a classic kids game played in Spain for generations called “Juego de la Lapicera.”

Regardless, the challenge likely isn’t as creepy as everyone thinks it is.

The Independent attributed the supernatural experience to nothing more than gravity (and the screams of the participants who believe they are in the presence of a demon).

“The pencils have to be so finely balanced on top of each other that even the slightest movement from a breath or slightly tilted surface will push it around,” read the report. “The arrangement of pencils that the game requires means that they’ll always move, because it’s just not a natural position for them to be in.”