Celebrities take on 'Ice Bucket Challenge' to fight disease

AKBfan

sorry but have to take a cynical view of this...

You don't have to apologize for your cynicism if you yourself have donated and/or contributed to increasing awareness. Have you?

sorry but have to take a cynical view of this. This articleputs it quite nicely. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2014/aug/21/ice-bucket-challenge-celebrity-charity-olly-murs

I am all for private fund raising efforts like this. Hopefully more people will catch on that they can get involved in issues that are important to them and realize that they do not need to rely on the government to take action on everything.

This act include the danger that people may forget the victim of ALS.

If the ALS people aren't complaining, then it's not my place to speak for them.

(And remember, this particular Bucket Challenge was started by a person afflicted with ALS - it was his intention that this should spread.)

I think tips campaign isn't moral.

This act include the danger that people may forget the victim of ALS.

This act should be banned. People have to find out the other idea to attract lots of people.

This act is so childish

@Tahoochi

Yes, it is a waste... but it's in a very good cause. Leaking pipes waste millions of gallons a year all around the world. That would be a better target for you....

Waste of water? Unbelievable. If you can watch this and still criticize the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, then you're nothing but a selfish, heartless, and jaded individual

I never said that the cause was a waste. I think the cause is an excellent one. Like I said before, I just think that for awareness, there have got to be better options than this. From someone living in a 3rd world country, these people just look like a bunch of rich people throwing away perfectly clean water, partly to seek attention. Water is a precious commodity to some people... it's not free, and it's not readily available to everyone. A little more thought for a great cause is all I'm saying.

Again, I agree that it's for a great cause, and I was actually half joking when I originally posted "waste of water", but since some people quickly became offensive in trying to defend the cause, it actually made me feel like following through in playing "the devil's advocate". With that said, what are they going to do next year? Crack some eggs over their heads? Pour a gallon of milk over their heads? Why not? It's for a great cause and it'll be fun!

Waste of water! What a sad comment.

Never thought I'd agree with USinJapan, but here I am giving him a thumbs-up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07OT8p8Oik

Waste of water? Unbelievable. If you can watch this and still criticize the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, then you're nothing but a selfish, heartless, and jaded individual.

If celebrities do it then it must be a great idea, yawn. Actually the idea is pretty good, most people are sheep and want to be part of the latest fad or trend. They will then join in this and it drwas attention to raising funds. Of course the celebs want it to draw attention to them though.

@jerseyboy

Gridlock in Washington, (which makes a tiny tax hike for medical research impossible) merely proves the hypocrisy of some of the those participating in this ice challenge who then turn around and vote for a political party who chooses to slash funding for the NIH (National Institutes of Health).

The irony of course is that the biggest givers to charity include right wing christian republicans. Yet, with one hand they vote for politicians who slash government spending for research and with the other hand they fill that void by donating to it. People shouldn't congratulate themselves for solving a problem they themselves have caused.

I don't want funding to be distributed depending on how popular a viral fundraising campaign can be. Charitable giving is also finite, so when one charity does well they cannibalize donations to others.

(I also didn't mean to say the ALS foundation came up with this idea themselves, just that they had better develop a viral idea for next year if they want to maintain their funding.)

Yes, this is ridiculous. I'd rather the government reach into the pockets of every American at the end of the year and take an extra $0.069, amounting to $22.9M of direct funding for the research. Otherwise a potential cure relies on whether the ALS foundation can come up with another stupid gimmick next year.

M3M3M3 -- nonsensical on at least two levels. First off, as you well know, the U.S. Government could never add what amounts to an extra tax to benefit just the ALS. In the present environment in Congress, nothing, no matter how small or well-intentioned, gets passed. Second, this is not a "stpid gimmick" thought up by the ALS. If you had spent even 30 seconds on Google you would have known that. To critisize them because they are benefitting from the groundswell that the friends of the young Massauchusetts guy who started all this has realized is just mean-spirited.

Anyone who is cynical, clueless or mean-spirited enough to call this a "waste of water" just doesn't have a soul.

@Johnbecker: Well, why not drink a litre of water instead then or something? There are people that could use clean water, places that are experiencing droughts. My point is whoever came up with this idea should have put more thought into it.

This "fad" has raised more money for the ALS Association in two weeks than they raised all of last year. ALS is one of the classic "orphan" diseases that afflicts too few people to get the attention and money for research. If ever something needed a novel approach to raising awareness, it was ALS. And this effort has done just that.

Anyone who is cynical, clueless or mean-spirited enough to call this a "waste of water" just doesn't have a soul.

“The Ice Bucket Challenge went viral because of the potent mix of celebrity, simplicity, and comedy,” warned sociologist Jen Schradie, a doctoral candidate at University of California, Berkeley.

“I doubt most people participating even know what ALS is, and that is the problem with this form of clicktivism: it does not promote a deep understanding or a long-term relationship with a cause.”

I'll bet the folks who will benefit from this campaign don't share Ms. Schradie's cynicism. Besides, the fact that some people are using this campaign due to "celebrity" is no different that "a doctoral candidate" commenting on it to get her 15 minutes of fame.

The "research" pursues one and only one solution -- a pharmaceutical drug solution. WRONG.

Waste of water.

Thank you lostrune2. You raise a good point: we must also remember that this is actually helping people for real, right now. I am worried about it just being a fad. But even if it is, it's good to remember that people are being helped.

Here's the heartwarming story how the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS started:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11366483

Anything to help charity. Can't fault people who are doing the right thing.

http://time.com/3100272/als-ice-bucket-challenge/

http://www.alsa.org/news/archive/ice-bucket-challenge.html

As a part of the so-called “ice bucket challenge,” started by a Massachusetts resident who has lived with ALS since 2012 to raise awareness for the disease, after posting their own ice-bucket videos, participants nominate others to get drenched via social media to keep the cycle going.

Ice Bucket Challenge Donations Continue to Exceed Expectations. As of Monday, August 18, The ALS Association has received $15.6 million in donations compared to $1.8 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 18). These donations have come from existing donors and 307,598 new donors to The Association.

ALS people aren't complaining.

This started here in New Zealand as the ice challenge that aimed towards donations to cancer. The Americans have just renamed it and ained it at ALS

There are many many many diseases out there. Is there enough ice and water on the planet to help raise money for all of these? If not, maybe a bucket of sand or dirt? I think M3M3M3's solution is more practical. Let's make it one dollar a year to tackle a whole bunch of them. Raising awareness is very important; so is raising funds. Maybe it's good that awareness has gone viral. But what will people do once the gimmick gets old?

clicktivism

For every thumbs down i get I'll donate a yen to my Champagne bucket

Yes, this is ridiculous. I'd rather the government reach into the pockets of every American at the end of the year and take an extra $0.069, amounting to $22.9M of direct funding for the research. Otherwise a potential cure relies on whether the ALS foundation can come up with another stupid gimmick next year.

I'm with Jen Schradie. not a fan of this kind of narcissistic "campaign". more dumbing down of society in my (curmudgeonly) opinion.