ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Failures

Except that it's not sustainable and for the amount of people that are affected by ALS many many more are affected by diseases like malaria and sleeping sickness where treatment exists. In the US there are more cystic fibrosis cases per year than ALS and the flu kills more people in the US than both.

Yes ALS is a tragic disease and it is good that attention is being brought to it but should funding for treating diseases be based on popular fads?

This isn't so much of an issue of ALS vs other diseases but that our culture tends to deal with issues based more off of popularity rather than need.

 

Why not complain about the Middle East, or starving kids, or any of the other millions of faults we have as a race.

This stupid trend obviously got people to open their wallets for a good cause, which is better than not opening their wallets. Could it have been a more productive cause, probably, but we take whatever good deeds we can get regardless or how they get done.

 

Pshhh... Ice Bucket...

 

I think at this point you have to go with whatever works. So if it takes a little challenge to get people aware and donate money to a better cause, so be it. Some people need an incentive to do something. You take what you can get.

If you want to deal with issues based off need, what would be the solution? How do you get as many people to notice, as they have done with the ALS challenge? Obviously its hard to tackle every cause and need so for now lets just take baby steps. Things like this have been one of the better ways social media has been used.

 

Very well put.

I'm not going to quit giving to the March of Dimes because only a small % of kids are born with problems and the donations could be used elsewhere...

 

They should be dumping ice water on fat people. Firstly, the obesity epidemic is much more widespread. Secondly, fat people can handle the cold.

 

I get what you're saying. I just think this world is so short on GOOD that when it happens we should just be thankful for it no matter where it came from, where it's going or why it's happening.

Besides, probably 95%+ of my donations go to dog rescues and I know that probably doesn't rank on most folks lists of charitable causes.

 

rocketsjudoka, I hear what you're saying, but...

1. I don't think people are *diverting* funds from other worthy causes to ALS. It's not like "oh, I was about to address this check to cause X but I want to make a stupid video instead."

2. If #1 is true, then as others have said, it's just a comparison to NOT giving, and in that way, this gimmick could serve as a gateway for some people to become more active givers overall. (A small effect would even be great.)

 

that's the issue, you think stupid teenagers challenging each other is about raising awareness and money. these kids just want to be cool and do the next harlem shake.

 

I think it sets a good precedent. It shows that we can go beyond the walks and the usually norm of donation. While there are more deserving causes, in time they too will tap into this form of viral campaigning. I work in cancer research, I think we need the money a little bit more but I still love this.

 

And that's perfectly fine, but you know that ALS has raised $22,000,000 to date because of this challenge? That's compared to only being in the hundred thousands at the same point last year. So, yes, there are a lot of stupid teenagers that don't donate any money to the cause and only do it to look cool, but there are a LOT more people who actually do donate. The cause is worthy, and people are talking about it which is priceless to organizations like this.

And I agree that there are a ton of other causes that people COULD be donating to, but at the same time, like someone said earlier in this thread, it's not as if it's an and/or situation. If anything, perhaps donating to something like ALS will start making people think about all the OTHER causes that are out there that they could also be donating to. Ultimately, it's a harmless fad that really doesn't have any downsides to it at all. It's a hell of a lot better than the Harlem Shake or Gangnam Style or whatever else you want to compare it to.

 

That's pretty much what I am saying. I'm not saying that people shouldn't donate to ALS and donate to other causes but that our society doesn't do a good a job of helping out causes and when it does so it is often based on what is trendy rather than need.

I'm sure other groups are going to do try to do things like this and more power to them. As someone who does fund raising for disaster relief I will probably look to try something like this too. That said I wish that it wouldn't take a viral fad to get people to donate to causes.

 

Hadn't seen it in full but it's a nice story.

Give to the Multiple Sclerosis organizations, too.

 

Life is all about marketing.

Doesn't mean it's right or wrong, but it's just the way things are. Just like how we'll spend millions on saving cuddly endangered animals as opposed to insects and invertebrates that are keystone species to a local area.

So I think your point is more an observation of the symptom rather than the root cause.

 

If I'm following your point through the comma splice, you're saying the key issue is what one poster (maybe me?) thinks versus the reality according to you? I'm pretty confused by that.

Anyway, you can focus on the "stupid teenagers" or you can see that this goofy gimmick has raised a lot of money that was otherwise probably going to buying donuts, alcohol, streaming movies, or clothes that people don't need.

And however annoying someone finds this, it's a million times less annoying than, for instance, Psy and that horrific song.

 

Op video no longer available.

 

This is basically the Kickstarter of Charity... People with extra money are giving and making videos. The power of Social Media.

In reality, no one would give $100 at a store for a crappy underpowered USB android stick, but if its on Kickstarter, I MUST HAVE IT.

Same concept here.

 

In a sad twist of irony, the co-founder of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Corey Griffin, drowned over the weekend in a diving accident in Nantucket.

RIP

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/08/16/nantucket/ARfxvkOvbjsJ1QiGfPfv4L/story.html?hootPostID=bd7fd569a4b177b4366dc45126be9b13

 

I predict the challenge will lose steam before winter.