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This article is currently the subject of an educational assignment.

Greetings Wikipedia,

I am a student at Carnegie Mellon University, working with a partner User:emilyhacker|emilyhacker to build upon the Ice Bucket Challenge page. We think the page has a great start, but we would like to add to it. We have the following outline in mind; the bolded sections are "new."

1. History
   1. Origins
   2. Shifting Focus to ALS
   3. Marketing the Challenge
2. Rules
   1. Supporting Personal Causes
3. Impact
   1. Celebrity Impact
   2. Philanthropic Impact
   3. Global Impact
4. Criticism
   1. Importance of the Cause
   2. Use of Donated Funds
   3. Focus on stunt rather than donations
   4. Sexuality in the Challenge
   5. Health Risks
   6. Misuse of Water
5. Scams
6. References

And here are the drafts for the sections we hope to add:

The Ice Bucket Challenge has been a successful campaign for many reasons. Its combination of competitiveness, social media narcissism, and low [barriers to entry | barrier of entry] has lead to more than 2.4 million tagged videos circulating Facebook ^[1]. The game-like nature of the challenge made it relevant to millions, and pairing it with a charity organization justified taking part. Even though 40-50% of the new donors are likely to make one-time gifts only, the Challenge instigated large numbers of people, videos, and donations. The challenge also benefits from a unique balance of mass interest and individual identification ^[2]. In using social media as its platform, it accessed many people worldwide; in having its participants individually identify potential candidates -- calling them out by “tagging” them -- it felt personal. Furthermore, the videos are often purposefully entertaining. Some celebrities have indulged in longer videos to name-drop, show off their vacations, their homes, their humility, and some even advocate for their own organizations. The average participants keep their videos under a minute, requiring limited commitment from any viewers. Another concept the Challenge benefitted from is its ripple effect, inspiring features for articles titled “Top 10 Ice Bucket Challenge Fails” ^[3] and “10 More of the Best Celebrity Takes on the Ice Bucket Challenge.” ^[4] Despite its marketing success, critics suggest that the ease of repeating the challenge's spiel do not increase awareness of what the disease actually does and who it is so harmful to.

Some participants who performed the challenge have donated to charities of their choice. This version, while not widely practiced, is generally accepted as a challenge success.

Countless celebrities took part in the challenge, making it a “celebrities are just like us” phenomenon. Forbes.com ^[5] suggests that celebrity involvement added to the challenge’s popularity, because it was a way for celebrities to acknowledge their “engagement” with the average American. Huffington Post ^[6] shares this viewpoint, adding that because so many celebrities have completed the challenge, it is easy for the general public to feel part of this virtual community. Google’s endless list of top celebrity Ice Bucket Challenges has led to a market for Ice Bucket Challenge-based articles, blogs, and spoofs. D-List celebrities and A-List celebrities alike have been challenged, but often the more public faces have chosen to donate to and raise awareness of their personal philanthropies in addition. For example, Matt Damon used the opportunity to raise awareness for his own organization, Water.org, and donated to both organizations as part of the challenge ^[7].”

The Ice Bucket Challenge snowballed so successfully because of the technology supporting it. Smartphones allowed for the instant recording, editing, and sharing of the challenge videos. Social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram created the feeds whereby the videos were immediately viewed and new contestants made aware of their destiny. ^[8]

Ultimately, societal pressures from celebrities, distant Facebook friends, and close group members (e.g. team, colleague, family participation) lead to a wave of positive reinforcement that pushed the Ice Bucket Challenge to greater and greater fame. Wikipedia reported a 100% spike in viewership of the ALS page by the end of August, correlating with the increasing awareness of the disease.

We plan to move the existing information under this new header, since it focuses mainly on the monetary aspect of the challenge.

Many similarly structured movements have spurred from the USA based Ice Bucket Challenge. NBC’s ^[9] list includes the Rice Bucket Challenge (India), the Bullet Bucket Challenge (Southern USA), and the Rubble Bucket Challenge (Gaza). Each of these campaigns is rooted in social media, and benefits from the hashtags, sharing, and context videos made possible by such a challenge. These are merely reactions and mimics of the Ice Bucket Challenge; we are still searching for information about the global impression of the Ice Bucket Challenge. In terms of financial success, however, ALS has raised considerable funds internationally in Western Europe.

Social media, as inherently self-advertising, encourages the videos in the Ice Bucket Challenge to have a performance-like quality. Celebrities and average citizens alike have increased their personal takes' popularity by doing the challenge in interesting locations, with comical props, or in some cases, in skimpy clothing. There are several lists of "The Sexiest Ice Bucket Challenges" and comparisons between it and wet t-shirt contests. ^[10]

References:

Would love some feedback!

Hsdouglas ( talk) 02:42, 23 October 2014 (UTC) Hsdouglas ( talk) 02:33, 1 December 2014 (UTC) Hsdouglas ( talk) 02:43, 1 December 2014 (UTC)