About
The Mountain Dew Conspiracy Theory is a conspiracy theory[1] linking the release of new Mountain Dew flavors to major world tragedies, suggesting that the name of the flavor hints towards an upcoming major tragedy. Examples included the release of Mountain Dew Code Red preceding the September 11th attacks[2] and Baja Blast preceding Hurricane Katrina. The theory was first shared by internet[3] user Ro Fisher (idkroofficial) on his Instagram[4] page in February 2025 and garnered viral spread that year.
Origin
On February 12th, 2025, Instagram user idkroofficial posted a clip of himself explaining the Mountain Dew conspiracy theory. In the clip, he claims that the release of certain Mountain Dew flavors shortly preceded major world tragedies and that the names of the releases related to the tragedies.
He starts by claiming that Mountain Dew Code Red was released three months before the September 11th terrorist attacks. He then claims that Maui Burst was released three months before the wildfires in Maui[5] and that Star Spangled Splash was released before the Francis Scott Key bridge collapsed[6], noting that Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner.” The clip gained over 166,000 likes in six months and comes from a longer episode of IDK Ro’s podcast on YouTube[7], released on February 7th, 2025.
Spread
The theory garnered viral spread over the following months as others covered it. On May 7th, 2025, themakeshiftproject posted a video to Instagram and TikTok discussing the theory, sharing the same information as Ro Fisher, including a theory about the release of Tropical Swirl, garnering over 484,000 likes on the former and 75,000 likes on the latter in three months.
On May 19th, YouTuber Jesse Cox posted a video sharing the theory that gained over 650,000 views in three months.
@themakeshiftproject Have You Heard Of The Mountain Dew Conspriacy Theory?! #fyp #soda #food #conspiracy #mountaindew ♬ original sound – The Makeshift Project[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
On August 12th, 2025, YouTuber The Food Theorists released a video covering the conspiracy theory in depth, in which they look into the connections between the flavor releases and the tragedies, garnering over 233,000 views in three days.
In the video, he notes that the connections are eerie but debunks the Star Spangled Splash flavor release connecting to the Francis Scott Key bridge, claiming the flavor was released after the bridge collapsed. He also finds an issue with relating Pitch Black to the financial crisis, as it was a rereleased flavor.
On August 13th, X user @messedupfoods quoted a post by the official Mountain Dew X account announcing the release of Baja Midnight on August 14th, writing, “Something bad is about to happen,” garnering over 297,000 likes in two days.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
References
- ^ conspiracy theory (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ September 11th attacks (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ internet (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ Instagram (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ wildfires in Maui (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ Francis Scott Key bridge collapsed (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ YouTube (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ @themakeshiftproject (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ fyp (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ soda (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ food (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ conspiracy (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ mountaindew (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ ♬ original sound – The Makeshift Project (www.tiktok.com)