Throughout July and August of this year, social media users were inundated with an almost constant stream of short videos featuring people from seemingly all walks of life dumping buckets of ice water on their heads. This trend, known as the âALS Ice Bucket Challengeâ, went viral in an effort to promote awareness for the disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. It soon became a most unlikely pop culture phenomenon, with various celebrities, politicians and athletes performing the challenge and posting their videos online.
On August 29th, the ALS Association announced that the total donations resulting from the challenge had exceeded $100 million. For this reason, it would appear that it would be difficult to criticize the campaign, but it certainly has not been met without any detractors.