ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: Successful Social Media Campaign Earns $15.6 Million For Charity! Cynics Say It’s ‘Narcissism Masked As Altruism’
Nearly every celebrity uploaded their own version of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
The likes of Taylor Swift, 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' star Chris Pratt, Lady Gaga, and Oprah Winfrey have all contributed to the viral video phenomenon of dumping a bucket of freezing water and ice over their heads. Justin Bieber even faced the bucket twice!
CEOs from Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft also participated in the challenge.
The viral trend was started by Boston College baseball player Pete Frates who is also suffering from amyotrophic lateral sceloris (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS causes muscle weakness and atrophy due to the degeneration of motor neurons. It eventually leads to difficulty in walking, speaking, and even breathing.
There are cynics, however, who think that this new trend (dumping a bucket with ice on oneself or donate $100 to an ALS foundation or do both) will not amount to much in the whole picture of charity-giving.
According to Vice, the Ice Bucket Challenge is like "a game of Would-You-Rather involving the entire internet where, appallingly, most Americans would rather dump ice water on their head than donate to charity."
The article adds, "There are a lot of things wrong with the Ice Bucket Challenge, but the most annoying is that it's basically narcissism masked as altruism."
According to the article, causes that utilize trends eventually get outdated and forgotten in time, "It's trendy to pretend that we care, but eventually, those trends fade away."
Whether this viral trend will fade away or not, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge still brought in millions to the cause. This massive social media campaign has earned an impressive $15.6 million since July 29 according to Time!
During the same time last year, the ALS Association only collected about $50,000, making this endeavour a roaring success. This year's collection is more than half of the $19 million dollars that the charity for the entire 2012.
"It's huge. It's a game changer for the ALS Association," Barbara Newhouse, the ALS Association president notes.
With all the celebrities that participated in the challenge, the association was able to raise $96,000 over one weekend.
Proceeds of this campaign will be used to fund research for ALS which costs about $6 million every year.
If the ALS ice bucket challenge carries on every year, then it would definitely help in funding for research as well as spread awareness for the disease.
