If last year I’d told you let’s pour a bucket of ice water over ourselves and then donate some money to one of our favourite charitable organisations to help raise awareness of a particular cause, you would probably say that I’m nuts.
However. this past summer this was the norm for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge awareness campaign. Some of you may ask, what is ALS? It’s the acronym for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, which control voluntary muscle movement.
Now some of you may be wondering, what is this challenge all about? Wikipedia describes it as ‘an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on someone’s head to promote awareness of the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and encourage donations to research.’ An individual who is nominated by a previous participant must accept the challenge and then nominate a friend or relative to also take up the challenge. This campaign has been so effective that, remarkably, it has raised over US$94.3 million since July 29, 2014 according to alsa.org. Soon after it was launched, the challenge quickly went viral via Twitter using the hashtag #ALSIceBucketChallenge.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is said to be the internet’s most viral event of all time and it is a prime example of how social media can positively impact a venture ‘overnight.’ Here are a few reasons why this campaign has been so successful.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is fun to watch and do. As I mentioned earlier, dumping a bucket of ice water over your head is crazy and you would ask yourself ‘Who in their right mind would do such a thing?’
Numerous celebrities took up the challenge, including LeBron James, Bill Gates, Kevin Hart, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Speilberg and even the Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, just to name a few.
Another reason the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge took off at the rate it did is because it touched individuals emotionally through the visual medium of video. There are some videos on YouTube showing individuals afflicted by ALS and the day-to-day challenges they have to endure as a result of the disease. They are quite touching and sad. Equally moving was the announcement that the co-founder of the Ice Bucket Challenge, Corey Griffin, aged 27, died in a drowning accident this summer.
The idea for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is quite simple. Accept the challenge to pour a bucket of cold water over your head and make a monetary donation to www.als.org, and then nominate your friends and family to do the same.
Summer is certainly the best time to dump a bucket of ice water over your head, and this is what makes this challenge so effective. Note well that so far, you haven’t seen anyone take up the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in the snow or at night as yet!
The #ALSIceBucketChallenge is pure fun.
