The ice bucket challenge is supposed to be an activity which raises awareness about ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), however an article titled “Ice bucket challenge: a celebrity wet T-shirt contest that has nothing to do with charity”, written by Peter Robinson, tells us that the challenge isn’t being as effective as it could be. The challenge is to pour freezing water over your head and post a video of it on a social media site. The person would then nominate people of their choice to take part in the challenge. The article was published by The Guardian on the 21st of August 2014.

Peter Robinson thinks that the challenge isn’t helping to increase donations for ALS as much as it could be, clearly shown from the title of the article and this quotation about Charlie Sheen, “His seemed an impressive donation, but it’s the least he could have done – almost literally.”. I partially agree with Peter. Many people are taking part in the challenge. This will raise awareness, but what good is awareness if no action is taken? It’s like if you watch someone bullying another person, but don’t do anything to intervene, a bystander of sorts. The challenges are effective in letting people know what ALS is, but do they actually increase the number of donations being handed over? The answer is actually yes, as from 29 July to 28 August this year, ALS received $98.2m, an absolutely huge increase from $2.7m donated during the same period last year (according to the BBC). But as stated in Mr Robinson’s article, the donations aren’t as large as they could be, yet again Charlie Sheen being a great example: “Sheen made $30m a year when he was in Two and a Half Men, took a $100m payoff when it all went wonky and stands to receive a windfall of $200m later this year when Anger Management tapes its 100th episode”. He donated $10,000, that is less than 0.01% of not even all of his money, showing how much people are actually doing. Awareness is pointless if no action follows.

For most people, their motive of taking part in the challenge might not be to raise awareness of ALS, but to just fit in with everyone else or to make themselves look concerned and caring about the campaign. Another quotation highlighting this is about another quotation: “Olly Murs chirpily tweeted his fans on Wednesday morning, asking to be nominated. “Haha someone nominate me,” he mused. “I’d be well up for the #IceBucketChallenge”. If Olly Murs really cared about ALS, he would make a video to raise awareness and donate money without needing to be “nominated”, but it’s almost as if he is treating it as a game. Yet again, this is an example of a lack of action. Instead of wasting loads and loads of water by pouring it over your head, you could simply donate a sum of money to the charity and spreading news of your genuine generosity. Your generosity could tempt others to follow in your angelic footsteps, which would lead to an increase in donations, as well as the awareness and also less water being wasted!

Celebrity contribution could actually increase the amount of concern about the campaign. Since such significant figures in the world (Charlie Sheen, Bill Gates etc.) are taking part in the challenge and donating money, other people could be convinced that this is a serious issue considering such high members of society taking an interest in the affair. This might not be the celebrity’s true motive though. They might just want to look like a saint to all their fans, using this challenge to their advantage to gain a little popularity. When a celebrity takes part in the challenge, it would be viewed by a lot more people, having a greater impact on the awareness of the campaign, but many people may watch purely for the entertainment value of the video, and not necessarily a celebrity’s video. No one will donate because no one will actually be interested or bothered to look into ALS, and is more interested in watching someone shriek at the water being dropped on their head.