The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Whether if you were in the know or not, you would have watched a ALS #icebucketchallenge video clip on Facebook or Instagram during the late summer period. The Ice Bucket Challenge is the latest phenomenon to take over our Instagram feeds, and its aim is to raise money and awareness for ALS.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the American name for the condition usually referred to as motor neurone disease (MND) in some other countries. ALS affects the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons degenerate and die which makes it increasingly difficult to move muscles. There is currently no cure.

Once someone is nominated to participate in the #IceBucketChallenge, they are supposed to either douse themselves with freezing water or donate to the ALS Association. Not only does the campaign raise awareness about the disease but so far, the publicity has already led to a massive increase in donations for ALS treatment and research.

As with any popular news on the social media, there is bound to be criticism against the challenge. Some critics of the social media campaign are blasting the challenge because it’s a waste of water, And then there are those who call this sort of campaign “slacktivism,” meaning that it allows people to show support of a charity or movement without doing much of anything. Some critics felt that the ice bucket videos is like an exercise in raising awareness of one’s own zaniness, altruism, and/or attractiveness in a wet T-shirt…there were also more serious allegation against ALS research methodologies, which ViTRINE will not dwell on the basis of maintaining a politically nuetral and secular content.

Some of the criticisms may be true, an UK survey conducted by VoucherCodesPro looking at social media trends found that over a third of respondents said they did the challenge just to gain attention on social media and that only sixteen per cent said they donated between £1 and £3 to an ALS charity after completing the challenge, while three per cent said they donated £10 or more.

Whichever the reason, we appreciated that some celebrities took time off to raise awareness of ALS. Many inject a healthy sense of humour and joy when filming the videos…ViTRINE picked 8 of our favourite ALS #IcebucketChallenge videos, videos that not only raise awareness of ALS but also encouraged us to take some time off and chill (no pun intended) with your loved ones and co-workers!

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