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The ALS ice-bucket challenge is perfect.
Sure, it’s goofy. It’s hammy. It’s confused. (Dump a cooler over your head or donate to Lou Gehrig’s disease? Let’s hope that Bill Gates and his gorgeous colored-pencil set and his perfect dock and his $76 billion gave a whole lot more than $100.) But as a viral charitable-giving campaign, it is textbook, much like the bullied bus monitor and Kony 2012 and Movember campaigns before it.
That is because it pulls the big social and emotional levers that get people to give, and it makes it easy and fun for them to do so. It’s a campaign to make behavioral economists and marketing experts happy — as well as the ALS Association, which has received about $23 million in donations thus far. Let’s break the components of its giddy, viral appeal.
It’s personal. The ALS ice-bucket challenge is not just about raising money to combat a horrible disease. It’s about a person: Pete Frates, the 29-year-old former captain of Boston College’s baseball team. The campaign first took off in New England as Frates’s friends, neighbors, and classmates joined in and posted their ice-dumping videos in honor of him on YouTube and Facebook.
originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: OptimusCrime
Three of my cousins have done it and posted it. Funny to watch their reactions.
originally posted by: howmuch4another
aaaand there's this...
originally posted by: mblahnikluver
a reply to: PurpleDog UK
Craze?
It's for a good cause. I have a good friend who lost his mother a month ago from ALS. I'd gladly dump ice on my head and donate if I had the money.
originally posted by: howmuch4another
a reply to: OptimusCrime
they raised about 13 million after this thing had been viral over a month. the results are actually weak and in California we are having the worst drought in our lifetimes....it is stupid.
edit to add: write a check....
originally posted by: howmuch4another
a reply to: OptimusCrime
that was the last I heard. whatever. still weak. Did you notice that included Bill Gates? If everyone just gave money like Charlie Sheen there would be way more$$. I would rather have the water.