In the summer of 2014, a social media phenomenon took over the world by storm. That social media phenomenon, known as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, consisted of over one million videos posted on Facebook and raised over 90 million dollars to ALS.org foundation within the span of a month.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was a social media challenge, created by Pete Frates and Pat Quinn, in which a person would dump a bucket of cold ice water on their head and proceed to nominate three other people to partake in the challenge. If the nominated did not respond within 24 hours with their own video, they would have to make a charitable donation to the ALS foundation. This all served a purpose to create an awareness for patients suffering from the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease.
The inception of social media gave birth to connections with people from all across the globe. With these connections, there has been a significant increase in the potential to spread a certain type of awareness. Although not every awareness that spreads across social media fulfills good intentions, the ALS ice bucket challenge was one of the formidable acts to increase an awareness for a good cause. It magnified the dynamic of how social media could be used to aid others who are in need of help with a simple act of passing on the message.
They say that actions always speak louder than words. This was the unique factor that made the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge so powerful. It wasn’t just hashtags and words that were used to spread the message on social media, but many people took the initiative to either dump water on themselves or donate money to charity. With the use of Facebook, it gave easy accessibility for friends and family to hop on the campaign, as uploading a video and tagging others were only a few clicks away from each other. This also added onto the dynamic of how social media challenges could lead to a healthier form of peer pressure. Moreover, we cannot forget about the star power when talking about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Celebrities of all statuses, from Bill Gates to LeBron James, also partook in this wave, which resulted in a greater outcome both influentially and financially. Through social media, celebrities were able to spread the message of ALS to a greater range of people when doing the challenge, while they themselves often donated an abundance of money to the ALS foundation.
In the end, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was a very successful social media phenomenon which raised both a great extent of awareness and money for those who suffer from the disease of ALS. It provided a nice break from the hot summer days by dumping cold ice water on the head, and was able to make many people’s day brighter when watching the reactions of the participants via social media.
Citations:
Ritchie, Julie. “4 Things We Learned from the Ice Bucket Challenge.” Marketo Marketing Blog – Best Practices and Thought Leadership, Marketo, 3 Sept. 2014, https://blog.marketo.com/2014/08/4-things-we-learned-from-the-ice-bucket-challenge.html
Weiner, George. “5 Reasons Why the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Was Successful.” Whole Whale, Whole Whale, 29 July 2017, www.wholewhale.com/tips/ice-bucket-challenge/.
Ohlheiser, Abby. “The ALS ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ Is Working.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 27 July 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/07/27/the-als-ice-bucket-challenge-is-working/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8b8308f65157.