The Utter Nonsense of 5-Minute Crafts
- Claire Roper
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
If you’ve ever found yourself in the depths of a Facebook or Instagram scroll spiral, chances are you’ve encountered a video from 5-Minute Crafts. Bright colours. Peppy music. A caption like “You won’t believe this genius idea!” followed by someone hot-gluing a sponge to a fork and calling it a "life hack."
At first glance, the premise is appealing. Who wouldn’t want to make a wine rack from paper straws or fix a broken chair with toothpaste? But watch more than three of these clips in a row and you begin to notice a theme. Most of these so-called crafts are complete nonsense. There are plenty of "helpful" tutorials like: Fun ideas to upgrade your toilet!, Smart Road Trip Pee Hack, DIY Bamboo & Epoxy Glass Stand, Original way to catch a bird with a cardboard box! or the classic She Made a Back Scratcher… Out of Her NAIL CLIPPINGS?!
Before you know it, you're being told to grab your blowtorch, resin, a couple of old tyres, and a soldering iron...
Huge on Facebook
Believe it or not, 5-Minute Crafts is one of the top five pages in the world with around 130 Million followers on their main Facebook page.
More people follow 5-minute crafts on Facebook than Shakira, Will Smith and Lionel Messi. And they just keep growing. Instead of sticking to one page, they’ve rolled out a bunch of versions in different languages and for different audiences. 5-Minute Crafts Teens, Recycle, Decor, you name it. Basically, they’re everywhere. It’s a smart way to spread their totally bonkers craft content across the globe, keep people watching, and cash in big-time on ads. We're talking billions of views, endless scrolling, and a content machine that never takes a day off.
Owned by TheSoul Publishing founded by Russian entrepreneurs Pavel Radaev and Marat Mukhametov. TheSoul Publishing grew incredibly fast, by around 2019, it had about 550 employees and produced roughly 1,500 videos per month. By 2021 it expanded to over 2,100 employees across 70+ countries following a remote-first model.
The Appeal of the Absurd - Information Gap Theory
Despite (or because of) how ridiculous the content is, 5-Minute Crafts is wildly popular. But it's all about psychology and content marketing, and 5-minute crafts have this nailed.
Ever scroll past something completely bonkers and think, “Okay… I need to know what happens next”? That’s not just random curiosity, it’s psychology. Specifically, *Information Gap Theory*. When your brain spots a mystery it doesn’t have the answer to, it wants to fill in the blanks. So you click. Developed by behavioural economist George Loewenstein, the theory says curiosity kicks in when there’s a gap between what you know and what you want to know. That gap creates just enough tension to keep you watching.
This is the engine behind clickbait:
- “You won’t believe what happened next…”
- “Doctors hate her for this one trick…”
- “What she found inside the box left her speechless.”
You don’t get the answer upfront. Just the gap. And 5-Minute Crafts has perfected this, cue a video with a watermelon, a hot knife, and an iron. You have no clue what’s about to happen, but suddenly, you’re all in. Why? Because solving the mystery gives your brain a little dopamine hit. You feel smart, satisfied, and ready to share the weirdness. It’s simple, but powerful.
So what’s the point of these videos?
Let’s be honest, no one’s watching 5-Minute Crafts because they genuinely want helpful life hacks. These videos aren’t solving problems, they’re about pulling you in and keeping you glued (literally and metaphorically) to the screen.
What’s really going on behind the scenes...
Catching Your Attention (Even If It’s Just to Say “WTF”) These videos are made to stop you mid-scroll. Heaps of bright colours, fast cuts, and completely bonkers visuals - you'll find yourself watching how to iron clothes with a frying pan.
The Weirder, the Better The more absurd the “hack,” the better it performs. Why? Because people can’t help but share it with a “Look at this nonsense” comment or tag their mates with “You HAVE to see this.”
More Views, More Money These videos rack up millions of views across all platforms, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and they’re often re-posted in different formats or languages to reach an even bigger audience. Longer videos mean more ad breaks, and more ad breaks mean more money.
Mass-Produced Mayhem There’s no talking, no storytelling, just fast, weird stuff happening. That makes them super easy to produce in bulk. They crank out 1,500 a month. No problem. Social loves fresh content, and they’re happy to deliver it by the DIY bucketload.
Confuse and Conquer A lot of what you see is either heavily staged or flat-out fake. But the aim isn’t to teach you anything, it’s to make you watch to the end, feel confused, maybe laugh, eye roll, and then click on the next one. Rinse and repeat.
What is the content creator achieving?
In short: money, reach, and algorithm domination. They’re not trying to make your life easier or inspire genuine creativity. They're creating content that thrives on curiosity, and a little bit of chaos. It doesn’t matter if the DIY works. It doesn’t even matter if it makes sense (and it often doesn't). What matters is that it gets views, goes viral, and keeps you watching just long enough to cash in on your attention.
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