! We’ve seen Kim Kardashian do it. We’ve seen
Leonardo Dicaprio, Tom Cruise, Britney
Spears and Jennifer Lopez taking the
challenge.
It has also been criticized as being a
“celebrity wet T-shirt contest that has nothing
to do with charity”. A more harsh criticism,
do you agree with the statement?
But despite the money and awareness the Ice
Bucket Challenge has raised, it’s been
criticized for a number of reasons.
The Ice Bucket Challenge definitely has a
competitive aspect to it, especially among
celebrities, but does it really not have
anything to do with charity? The fact that
celebrities are encouraging their mass
followers to participate and donate to a
charity is the main point. So what if they’re
also slightly competing with each other, is
that not to be expected?
The first and probably most obvious one is;
basically we’re all chucking a bucket full of
water on each other… not exactly the best use
of water.
To be fair, it’s a pretty good point, all over the
world there are people suffering from
dehydration or drinking polluted unsafe
water because they don’t have access to
treated water. But could it be argued that the
money the challenge raises and the good it
does in bringing people together, outweighs
this?
Ultimately, prior knowledge of ALS was a lot
lower and limited than it is now after the Ice
Bucket Challenge. Between July 29th and
August 17th it was talked about more than 2.2
million times on Twitter alone. The challenge
has helped raise this awareness and public
donations have risen rapidly.
Another big issue that has been raised with
the Ice Bucket Challenge is the health and
safety problems. At least one video of people
getting hurt while doing the Ice Bucket
Challenge has come up on many of our
timeline’s and at least two deaths have been
officially linked to the challenge.
Does this exceed its criticisms?
!
SOME ALS CHARITIES: