Course :Advertising Industry Practice COMM2700 Name: Huynh Nha Lam Student ID: s3651253 Lecturer: Mrs Thanh Tran Link webpage: https://s3651253.wixsite.com/yaing1201/copy-of-bewhite-campaign ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE Nowadays, as can be noticed from the news around the world, many social issues need to be addressed and solved As a result, many organizations and companies start to hold campaigns and use them as tactics to spread out the particular messages among people In 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge went viral throughout the social media platforms and made a huge impact on society’s awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) disease Soon, not only did the campaign become a trend but it also created many controversial issues throughout the process This essay is going to analyze the pros and cons of the campaign Besides, several recommendations will be mentioned before coming to the conclusion Specifically, in 2012, the Ice Bucket Challenge was initiated by Pete Frates, alumni of Boston College Regarding Braiker (2014), Frates was diagnosed with ALS and he started posting about the challenge with his father’s help Before the campaign went viral in 2014, there were a lot of people not even knowing the existence of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was aimed to make people curious and bring awareness of such disease to the world Due to Medrut (2019), people who participated in the campaign have to film and post videos on social media with the scenario that they have dumped a bucket of ice and water over their heads After that, they had to name three other people to the same challenge in 24 hours and donate to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis to finish the process The campaign gained a lot of donations from the public especially celebrities such as Bill Gates, Oprah, Patrick Stewart, Taylor Swift, Chris Pratt, etc Regarding Provoco (2018), even the President Obama also participated in donating for ALS community As the campaign went viral and gained more attention from netizens, people around the world became more creative and entertaining in making their video content According to Boko (2014), some elements make Ice Bucket Challenge one of the most successful campaigns of the year 2014 Firstly, the simple and clear requirement of challenge doesn’t take much effort from the audience to understand and participate in the campaign Nowadays, people prefer the direct message to the long content posted on the news or other social media pages People know that they just need to donate online for the ALS Association or pouring a bucket of ice over their heads to accomplish the objective of the challenge Secondly, the campaign created the opportunity for everyone to get involved since people could share it on many different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc As a result, this helped the campaign quickly go viral and approach so many people around the world Thirdly, the ALS challenge succeeded in making the multiplier effect To explain, the participants needed to name and encourage the other three more people to join them in 24 hours Therefore, this made them more close to one another in their network as people were together spreading out the meaningful message and enjoying the fun of the process Despite the huge contribution to the ALS community, the Ice Bucket challenge still had many controversies during the journey Throughout the campaign, some might assume that water shouldn’t be wasted like that The usage of water in this campaign caused the concern of negatively affecting the earth According to page The Atlantic (2014), Jim Gulliford, executive director of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, argued that it was also quite sensitive for conducting the campaign when California drought was happening at that time On the other hand, there was a phenomenon when people took the challenge without really knowing the purpose of it It seemed like they just went with the flow of trend and showed it on Facebook for fun and attention Besides, even though many people were joining in the campaign, not everyone donated for the ALS As a result, due to Kosinski (2017), there were those people who called this campaign with the word “slacktivism” to mention the people had opportunities to show their support to the ALS community but in reality, they didn’t have much actual contribution to the association Moreover, after the campaign, there were many unfortunate accident cases made by people themselves when they poured a bucket of ice over their heads Although the campaign is so successful in making an impact on raising people’s awareness of ALS, there are some aspects can be improved to achieve a better result One of the biggest issues happening in this campaign was the accidents of people joining in Ice Bucket Challenge To tackle this issue, the ALS Association can post on their fan page some advice or recommendations that encourage the audience to carefully prepare things for the challenge since the safety of activities should be prioritized and focused This also shows the caring attitude towards the supporters of the campaign Another aspect that can be emphasized in the campaign is the purpose and origin of the challenge When people filmed and posted on social media, they didn’t mention much about the ALS disease, the videos simply went viral because it engaged people and the fun image of participants If the campaign can talk more about ALS and spread out more content relevant to the origin of the challenge, the audience will have more awareness of what they are doing and posting As a result, what people are doing will have more meaning to the ALS community and the campaign can show a more positive image to the world To sum up, Ice Bucket Challenge deserves to be nominated as one of the most outstanding campaigns in the world since it has succeeded in achieving two main goals: raising people’s awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and raising funds for ALS community Nevertheless, with the lack of consideration about the safety of participants and some other sensitive factors, the campaign also received some negative responses from the critics Therefore, the campaign still needs to improve if it wants to create a more positive perspective to the public ❖ Reference: Braiker, B 2014, ‘The ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’: A case study in viral marketing gold’, The Digiday, 14 August, viewed 27 November 2019, Boko, G 2014, ‘6 Viral-Marketing Lessons to Learn From the Ice Bucket Challenge’, The Entrepreneur, 27 August, viewed 27 November 2019, Medium 2018, ‘The Success of the Ice-Bucket Challenge’, The Medium, January, viewed 27 November 2019, Medrut, F 2019, ‘Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? What Difference Did It Actually Make?’, Goalcast, August, viewed 27 November 2019, Li, S 2014, ‘The California Drought Versus the Ice Bucket Challenge’, The Atlantic, 19 August, viewed 27 November 2019, Kosinski, B 2014, ‘#IceBucketChallenge: Why You’re Not Really Helping’, The Huffpost, 08 July, viewed 27 November 2019, ... the Ice- Bucket Challenge? ??, The Medium, January, viewed 27 November 2019, Medrut, F 2019, ‘Remember the Ice Bucket. .. Braiker, B 2014, ‘The ? ?Ice Bucket Challenge? ??: A case study in viral marketing gold’, The Digiday, 14 August, viewed 27 November 2019, ... Versus the Ice Bucket Challenge? ??, The Atlantic, 19 August, viewed 27 November 2019,