Ice Bucket Challenge: Has vanity taken over a good cause?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Ice Bucket Challenge: Has vanity taken over a good cause?

Cristiano Ronaldo takes the ice bucket challenge

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was originally a small fad that was started to help raise money for a worthwhile charitable cause, although now the scheme has been used for other charities and some even suspect many have not donated at all despite taking up the challenge. The question is, with so many celebrities stripping down and uploading a video as soon as possible, has the Ice Bucket Challenged turned more into something which you upload to Instagram for likes off girls or does it retain it's original meaning?

Does it actually matter if people are being vain if it is still raising money for a worthwhile cause? Has the fad gone on too long now? Was Patrick Stewart right to make a subtle punch as his fellow celebrities when he simply wrote out a cheque?

There are plenty of nifty prizes to be won within this forum. Positive contributions towards official debates will sometimes be rewarded with a month's VIP subscription in a colour of your choice as part of the Top Contributor award. As well as this, reputation will be awarded throughout the debate to those who make valid and constructive posts. Those who make the best contributions within a month win the Debater of the Month award and wins themselves a month's worth of forum VIP and 10 reputation points. Finally, those who create debate topics that generate a lot of buzz and engaging discussion will receive 20 reputation points.

The debate is open to you.

[OldLoveSong]

either way if you donate or not you're still talking about it therefore people are being informed of it and i had no idea of what ALS was before this challenge was announced but now im aware of what it is. there has been tremendous amounts of donations due to this whole challenge and i think its great I did my als challenge today!

[LoveToStack]

It's a fad and with that there will always be people hopping on the bandwagon to keep up appearances, to show they're still 'with it' and to farm video views or likes or whatever. So yes there will be a subset of people making and viewing these videos purely because "it's funny" and who won't donate money or spare a single thought for the charity. But I think that's pretty harmless on the grand scale of things. Narcissists and such will do what they will do regardless.

When you take a look at the figures:

Washington, D.C. (August 27, 2014) — As of Wednesday, August 27, The ALS Association has received $94.3 million in donations compared to $2.7 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 27). These donations have come from existing donors and 2.1 million new donors. The ALS Association is tremendously thankful for all of the generous support and awareness that this summer phenomenon has generated for the cause.

It's apparent that the push is working as intended. What might be interesting to read in the context of this debate is the distribution of those donations and the amounts donated. With a great deal of the interest and hype of this campaign being drummed up by celebrities, millionaires and billionaires, many of whom have a great deal of disposable income and probably donate quite generously to various charities already, it would be telling to see how much of that ~$95 million came from sizable donations from public figures and how much came from piecemeal donations.

However even if only 1 in every 10 or 1 in every 100 people who watches or makes an ice bucket challenge video bothers to get involved with the charity or donate I don't think it's a problem. The net result is a charity that will be able to do a lot more than it previously could and that supports a cause that people are ultimately more aware of. So what if there are a couple 100,000 surplus videos of people having ice water poured on them? I don't think the campaign is promoting vanity. I think vanity is a part of modern culture and this campaign actually makes good use of that. Every new video uploaded is another video that might potentially reach the eyes of someone who will donate money, regardless of whether the uploader made it to appeal to their own vanity or because they care about the cause.

[Kardan]

On my Facebook feed, it's all about vanity. Not one single person in the many I watched even mentioned 'ALS', and about only two said something along the lines of 'Don't forget to donate'. Also, nobody has even provided proof of donating, or even mentioned how much they've donated - so I'm pretty sure, from the people I know at least, it's all about vanity.

Maybe I've come to expect too much from watching YouTubers etc. who actually going into depth in their videos about what ALS is etc.

[FlyingJesus]

I don't think it really matters how vain a person is while doing it; if Ronaldo donates a few thousand and inspires his millions of fans to donate or at least be aware of the condition I doubt that any sufferers are going to suggest that it's all pointless because he's good looking. Also if we're going to criticise people for the manner in which they perform good deeds I'd say that people like Patrick Stewart who make a spectacle of not doing the actual task that's set are far more pretentious and infuriating than those dumping ice on themselves - but again, I doubt that the charity will object.

One thing to note is that with these huge charity donations people do tend to just go for it without any research which sort of takes away the point of it. If you're donating because you've been told to and not because you think it's an awful disease that requires more research then it's all good for them but awareness is an extremely important part of it... awareness of the disease, and also the ethics of the charity. All big charities need to pay some salaries so expecting 100% of donations to go straight to the cause is ridiculous, but with ALSA only 27% of all donations actually go into research so I'd personally urge people in the UK at least to donate to MND which is for the same disease but with rather better ratio of donation-to-research, or any other charity of your choice as long as it's an informed decision. Information is important and there's no excuse in 2014 to be without it.

[e5]

No reason to make this debate into something negative such as using vanity. At the end of the days raising awareness and is for a good cause. Not everyone donates but steady it raises the awareness. I had no idea what it was before this but now I do!

[GommeInc]

The Ice Bucket Challenge is one of those rare occasions where vanity, awareness and charity go perfectly hand in hand. Not everyone is doing it for vanity, but those who do are making people aware of the charities involve (it's no longer just ALS) but getting others to do it and donate.

It's not like those Facebook users who think liking an image will raise awareness or stop a serial killer from using child soldiers like what happened with Kony 2012 which was incredibly useless.

The Ice Bucket Challenge isn't that different to the usual Red Nose Day, World Aids Day, Children In Need, MacMillan etc events held across the country where you dress up, have a sponsored silence or doing something "funny for money", albeit on a smaller scale with fewer admin costs and controversy with how the money is invested (as was the case with RND/CIN).

So far it has been nought but good.

[AgnesIO]

The Ice bucket Challenge...

Refused to get involved in this fad, although not necessarily just because of the vanity point.

I do NOT deny that it has raised awareness for ALS (although I still doubt most people who are now 'aware' actually have a clue what ALS is...). I also do NOT deny that it has raised vast sums of money for various charities, and over $94,000,000 for ALS Association. But, sadly, the story doesn't end there.

ALS Association has recently filed for a trademark of the name "Ice Bucket Challenge". Wonderful. So anyone who has donated money to this organisation (that is well-known for testing on animals), can now live safe in the mind that a percentage of their donation is being spent on an unnecessary trademark, and one that is ultimately putting other charities own gains at risk; happy unethical charity, folks.

Then there is the bit about wasting water. Sorry, but what numpty genuinely believes pouring a bucket of 'ice' (er, mildly cold) water over their head is experiencing what it is like to suffer from ALS? And please, don't waste water. Does anyone here have any idea what it is like to not have access to water? To not be able to turn on a tap and see water flow magically out of it? I do, and for that reason, I find it incredibly discomforting to see tens of thousands of people throwing a bucket of water over their head - often on concrete, meaning the argument of helping plants etc is completely voided too. Bet WaterAid loves it.

And then, yeah, the vanity thing. Ultimately, this is nothing more than an ego trip for a lot of people - look at me, I'm raising awareness for a cause I don't understand, I am Mr. Do Good. The typical video I see is "Hi. Thanks for the nomination NAME. I nominate blah blah blah. *Pours bucket of water over head*." Some even go as far as remembering to say "don't forget to donate!!".

----

Despite all of that, it is certainly an impressive campaign that has raised huge sums of money for ALS Association, and a number of other charities. I don't think it has really raised much 'awareness', as I doubt many people even know what ALS stands for (nor for the fact the main organisation is American) - but any awareness is surely better than none.

[Yupt]

The more people who enter the more you'll find that donations aren't actually being sent for the task performed. The important thing is that this challenge has earned a huge amount of money for charity and served it's purpose thoroughly.

[lRhyss]

Although millions of £££ have been raised for ALS (MND) research, I have seen so many people who have done this as a joke and not donated - not because they couldn't afford to, but because the meaning of this challenge was lost on them beyond getting likes from their friends on Facebook.