There are many classic rivalries: Coke and Pepsi, Bhad Bhabie and Alabama Barker—but I don’t think anyone saw Crumbl Cookies and a Paleo wellness coach from Santa Cruz coming. Brendan Ruh of Santa Cruz Medicinals began offering people outside of Crumbl Cookies a deal: cash if they didn’t buy the cookies inside.
Eventually, the Crumbl Cookies CEO responded to Ruh’s challenge by offering an alternative: take the money, and use it to buy Crumbl delivery. Despite Crumbl’s massive online presence, thousands rallied around Ruh, applauding his efforts and asserting the unhealthy nature of Crumbl’s cookie offerings.
On Jan. 12, 2025, Crumbl Cookies CEO Sawyer Hemsley, posted a video on TikTok where he suggested that, “if someone offers you money not to buy Crumbl…just take the money and order delivery.”
“If you know you know,” the caption of the video asserted.
@sawyerhemsley If someone outside a @Crumbl ♬ original sound – Sawyer Hemsley
With nearly 16,000 views and around 350 likes, the video didn’t get much traction itself. It did, however, fuel Ruh’s outspokenness about Crumbl’s unhealthy properties, something he’d been expressing for months—not just with the cookie company but also with other allegedly unhealthy corporate chains.
On March 5, 2025, Ruh posted videos to his X, TikTok, and Instagram accounts responding to Hemsley’s TikTok, and asserting he was “doubling down” on his challenge to offer individuals money (in this case, $100 dollars) to not buy Crumbl cookies.
Before approaching anyone, the creator mentioned that the chain has over 1,000 locations and sells over one million cookies per day. “This is not a small business—I would never do this at a small cookie shop business, that’s not what I do. But this stuff is trash, it’s not even a cookie, man.”
Ruh goes on to say that Crumbl’s products contain corn syrup, seed oils, red 40, blue one, yellow five, artificial preservatives, and more.
As Ruh approached customers, responses were initially mixed; with some denying and some accepting Ruh’s offer of money. At one point a Crumbl cookie employee inside came out, offering Ruh water and a free cookie sample, which he politely declined. The video concludes with one woman accepting the $100 for not eating Crumbl, and agreeing with Ruh about the company’s unhealthy product.
These videos went viral on X and TikTok, garnering 5.8 million views and 1.3 million views, respectively. The comments were incredibly encouraging, almost protective of Ruh. One comment read, “people denying 100 dollars to buy overpriced garbage is insane [cry].” “Crumbl is trying too hard bro,” read another.
Still another read, “THEY TRIED TO KILL UNC WITH THE MICRO PLASTICS 🙏😭.”
‘Thanks for tryna poison us tho’
After Ruh’s “double down” video went viral, some TikTok users decided to post on Hemsley’s response from January, aligning with Ruh and voicing their disapproval of Crumbl’s products. “W Santa Cruz,” read one. “Maybe you should have better ingredients in your cookies, bro,” read another.
“I’m good bro, don’t want 110 grams of added sugar, thanks for tryna poison us tho,” read another comment.
This isn’t the first time Crumbl’s offerings have caused controversy. Many have called out the massive amounts of calories (each cookie has anywhere from 180 calories to 1200 calories per serving, often with four servings within one cookie) and high usage of chemical ingredients, in addition to saying the taste of the cookie itself was unappealing and overrated.
In October 2024, a fake Crumbl pop-up sold stale, $12 Crumbl cookies to disappointed Crumbl fans in Sydney, prompting an investigation into the pop-up and many viral videos and reports on the pop-up’s questionable activity.
@sofiaqistinee come with me to crumbl cookie sydneys pop up in bondi🩷🍪 #crumbl #crumblcookies #crumblecookiereview #crumble #australia #sydney #sydneyfood #sydneyaustralia #foodie #foodreview #cookies #tastetest ♬ Espresso – On Vacation Version – Sabrina Carpenter
The Daily Dot has reached out to Brendan Ruh of Santa Cruz Paleo and Crumbl via direct message on TikTok. The creators did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
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