If you manage a personal social media account, your newsfeeds, homepages and timelines were probably bombarded with hundreds of smart phone-shot videos of your friends, relatives and enemies dumping buckets of ice water on their heads with varying degrees of logical explanation. It was probably hilarious at first, if only for the gimmicky nature of the trend; then you may have asked, after seeing a few dozen of these videos, “What exactly is the Ice Bucket Challenge, anyway?”
For most of the late summer, that was my question.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is “a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord,” as the ALS Association defines it. “Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to death.” This is a grim outlook for anyone suffering from this degenerative disease, and the Association has spent $99 million developing effective treatments and researching a cure. This summer, we witnessed an effort to work harder toward that cure, albeit in an incredibly controversial fashion.
By early August, my Facebook newsfeed was flooded with videos of my friends taking the Ice Bucket Challenge and nominating one another to complete it alongside them. The conditions of the challenge, as laid out by the participants, ranged from vague juvenile bets like “You have 24 hours, or you know the drill!” to detailed, well-written sentiments about family members who have suffered and heartfelt commitments to donate money even after completing the challenge. The messages were inconsistent at best: some participants claimed to be participating in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge but mentioned nothing about the disease itself; some essentially “dared” their friends to complete the challenge “or else” they had to donate to the cause; others chose a hybrid form of the challenge, encouraging their friends to donate a small sum of money even if they completed the challenge as designed. Some were nominated but refused to complete the challenge at all because they didn’t want to buy into a cause that was insufferably muddled by social media and sensationalist activism.
Slate journalist Will Oremus delivered a scathing critique of the Ice Bucket Challenge in early August, titled “Take the No Ice Bucket Challenge.” In it, he wrote, “It’s hard to shake the feeling that, for most of the people posting ice bucket videos of themselves on Facebook, Vine and Instagram, the charity part remains a postscript. Remember, the way the challenge is set up, the ice-drenching is the alternative to contributing actual money.” Oremus acknowledges that some participants provided additional conditions in their Ice Bucket call-outs, encouraging those they challenged to donate a small amount of money even if they chose to take the challenge instead of donating the larger sum. “Even so,” he wrote, “a lot of the participants are probably spending more money on bagged ice than on ALS research. As for ‘raising awareness,’ few of the videos I’ve seen contain any substantive information about the disease, why the money is needed, or how it will be used.” Oremus encouraged readers to simply donate money and forgo the Ice Bucket Challenge altogether. “More than anything else, the ice bucket videos feel like an exercise in raising awareness of one’s own zaniness, altruism and/or attractiveness in a wet T-shirt.”
Matthew Harper of Forbes magazine has a different take, and even challenged Oremus’ view of the Challenge in his August 19 article on the same topic. He stipulated that the ALS Association has seen a dramatic increase in donations since the Ice Bucket Challenge took over social media, and this fact alone is sufficient evidence to support the claim that the Challenge works. According to the ALS Association’s website, the organization has received $94.3 million in donations as of August 27, compared to $2.7 million between July and August of last year. These donations have come, they say, from existing donors as well as 2.1 million new donors. Coincidence? They think not. “The ALS Association is tremendously thankful for all of the generous support and awareness that this summer phenomenon has generated for the cause,” the site proclaims.
Further still, the mass awareness that the Challenge has raised on various social media platforms is proof, Harper says, that any charity can reach a vast audience with something as simple as a video of someone dumping a bucket of ice water on their head. Rather than detracting from other causes, it can encourage other causes to flourish. “Although [there are] fears that there is money and attention being taken away from other charities,” Harper argues, “it’s equally likely that the result will be to cause those charities to find their own, effective promotion techniques to compete. This is likely to result in even more money being raised for good causes.”
The Ice Bucket Challenge has clearly contributed to an influx of new donors and a fantastic peak in overall donations for the ALS Association; for me, there’s no denying the numbers. But as active participants in these causes, we also need to consider the most effective way to go about raising awareness and, hopefully, money.
If you took the Ice Bucket Challenge this summer, consider whether you took it for the right reasons and whether your challenge actually raised awareness for this worthwhile cause. Education, awareness and fundraising are three essential functions of charities. If your Challenge achieved none of these goals, maybe your attempt could have been handled differently.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was ultimately not about your bucket of ice. It was about working toward a common goal of improving the lives of millions. Can you say your Challenge helped you work toward that goal? If so, then props to you.
