I have seen the Ice Bucket Challenge pop up on my Facebook News Feed several times, but didn’t realize what it actually was for a while. Turns out it’s a charity campaign to raise awareness about Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as motor neuron disease, and donations to the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Association. This insidious disease affects the human nerve cells and spinal cords, which degenerates muscle movement, causing patients to be paralyzed and even leads to death. 
So here are the rules for this fun and sharable challenge that is for a good cause. Any individual who is “challenged” to do the Ice Bucket Challenge has two choices: to donate a hundred dollars to ALS research, or to continue on with this heart-warming dare of pouring ice over your head and calling out three others who are encouraged to do the same.
Martha Stewart
Jimmy Fallon
Bill Gates Ice Bucket Challenge
Mark Zuckerberg
Influential figures like Mark Zuckerberg, Martha Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake and Bill Gates have all brought attention to ALS. There have also been mass Ice Bucket Challenges where crowds in Los Angles, New York and Chicago dumped ice on themselves. And this movement is actually working! According to TIME, “The ALS Association national office reported collecting $5.5 million in donations since July 29, compared with $32,00o in the same time period last year. Nearly 150,000 new donors have contributed.”
I would like to introduce the Ice Bucket Challenge to this blog site and to our Comm100C class. I nominate our professor John Armenta and our TAs Alex Dubee and Ned Randolph to do ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!
Sources:
http://time.com/3111965/here-are-the-11-best-celebrity-ice-bucket-challenge-videos/
http://time.com/3101166/als-ice-bucket-challenge-fundraising/
http://sourcefed.com/so-people-are-getting-buckets-of-ice-water-dumped-on-them-for-charity/
http://healthcare.utah.edu/healthlibrary/related/doc.php?type=85&id=P00771
It’s amazing how much money people can now raise on the internet with the right tools. This speaks to larger questions about how to make a video/idea go viral. What do you think are the necessary ingredients to make a video, photo or message to go viral? As for the bucket challenge, I may plan it for this weekend. Thanks for sharing!
In order for media content to go viral, it needs to be “shared” by a lot of people. They must be emotional, funny or inspiration. Some of the viral things that I remember on Facebook are KONY 2012, Psy’s Gangnam Style and the crying goat videos.
When one shares things like the Invisible Children videos, or the Ice Bucket Challenge, it shows their “Facebook Friends” that they are involved in human rights issues and cancer research. Sharing humorous videos also shows the type of humor the user has. I think content that go viral is what allows it to give people a certain online image and a feeling that makes them feel involved.