Well, I'm sure you read my previous post about the "ice bucket challenge", well there has been a bit of a twist in the tail!
McMillan cancer support are now using the challenge to raise funds for themselves. I'm not sure how I feel about this! I like the idea of them making money but am really unhappy about them taking someone else's campaign!
I have pushed the ALS message with this and when Ollie did his challenge yesterday I made sure to put the ALS info on the video and his written link on Facebook.
I have now been nominated and will be doing the challenge tonight! I know, I know, I said I wouldn't but I now feel its my duty to make people realise this challenge is for ALS!
Watch this space for the link to my Facebook video.
Tuesday, 26 August 2014
Friday, 22 August 2014
I need to get something off my chest.
I'm sure that most of you by now have come across the ALS Ice bucket Challenge, I know I have, my Facebook feed, my Instagram and my Twitter feed has been inundated with people carrying out the challenge and nominating other people. I've even seen a few mentions of it in the paper.
I don't want to be misunderstood with this post so I am going to be very clear from the beginning, I whole heartedly support the charities that come up with these awareness campaigns and I congratulate them in bringing their cause to the attention of the masses. I will more often than not participate and make a donation but my little rant here today is about the fickle nature of "A listers" and their exploitation of these causes.
There was a video posted by Steve O (of Jackass fame) on Instagram doing the Ice Bucket challenge and he made his donation and nominated others and made a point of asking the viewers about how much awareness this has actually raised? He received a huge backlash from voicing his opinion, so much so that he then Tweeted and Instagramed the following quote:
“TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO GOT MAD AT ME FOR THIS VIDEO: Since the ice bucket challenge began, over 15 million dollars has been raised for ALS research. I think that’s great, but when you consider the countless A-list celebrities who have actively gotten behind this cause by posting videos– the fact that not more than fifteen million dollars has been raised is a tragedy.
“It’s tragic because I don’t think many of those celebrities even bothered to mention how or where to donate money for ALS research. Most of them just poured water over their heads and named three random people, without including any “call to action” which actually benefits victims of ALS at all. Had all those celebrities given this cause any thought, hundreds of millions of dollars might have been raised, and a whole lot more awareness.
“Let’s start a new trend– by actually letting people know how to donate– visit this page: http://www.alsa.org/donate/ I’m nowhere near as rich or famous as many of the folks you’ve seen pour water on their heads, but I cared enough to get educated and donate one thousand dollars of my hard-earned money to http://www.alsa.org/donate/
I agree with this sentiment completely! The amount of Ice Bucket Challenge videos I have seen must be up in the triple figures already! Steve O was the first person I saw that actually made reference to the wedsite and the cause! Since his tweet a lot more people are linking to the website which is a great thing but why did it take 1 person to slam the rest of them for this to happen?
I saw an amazing video on Facebook yesterday about a guy who has made Steve O's point all the more poignant, please take a minute to check it out. I think that this man should be the face of the ALS charity movement. If this video and Anthony's story don't inspire you to make a donation (even £1 will help) I don't know what will.
The parts that affected me the most in this video was when Anthony talked about there being only (Only!!) 30,000 suffers of ALS in the US and therefore the pharmaceutical industry does not see the research and manufacture of any kind of drugs to help with their suffering as financially viable. It saddens me and makes me feel blessed that I am relatively healthy. Anthony's video has posed a deep deep though in me: How much is one persons life worth?
I have made a donation but I will not be carrying out the challenge. It should take a nomination from someone else to inspire you to donate, Anthony's video should be enough.
I don't want to be misunderstood with this post so I am going to be very clear from the beginning, I whole heartedly support the charities that come up with these awareness campaigns and I congratulate them in bringing their cause to the attention of the masses. I will more often than not participate and make a donation but my little rant here today is about the fickle nature of "A listers" and their exploitation of these causes.
There was a video posted by Steve O (of Jackass fame) on Instagram doing the Ice Bucket challenge and he made his donation and nominated others and made a point of asking the viewers about how much awareness this has actually raised? He received a huge backlash from voicing his opinion, so much so that he then Tweeted and Instagramed the following quote:
“TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO GOT MAD AT ME FOR THIS VIDEO: Since the ice bucket challenge began, over 15 million dollars has been raised for ALS research. I think that’s great, but when you consider the countless A-list celebrities who have actively gotten behind this cause by posting videos– the fact that not more than fifteen million dollars has been raised is a tragedy.
“It’s tragic because I don’t think many of those celebrities even bothered to mention how or where to donate money for ALS research. Most of them just poured water over their heads and named three random people, without including any “call to action” which actually benefits victims of ALS at all. Had all those celebrities given this cause any thought, hundreds of millions of dollars might have been raised, and a whole lot more awareness.
“Let’s start a new trend– by actually letting people know how to donate– visit this page: http://www.alsa.org/donate/ I’m nowhere near as rich or famous as many of the folks you’ve seen pour water on their heads, but I cared enough to get educated and donate one thousand dollars of my hard-earned money to http://www.alsa.org/donate/
I agree with this sentiment completely! The amount of Ice Bucket Challenge videos I have seen must be up in the triple figures already! Steve O was the first person I saw that actually made reference to the wedsite and the cause! Since his tweet a lot more people are linking to the website which is a great thing but why did it take 1 person to slam the rest of them for this to happen?
I saw an amazing video on Facebook yesterday about a guy who has made Steve O's point all the more poignant, please take a minute to check it out. I think that this man should be the face of the ALS charity movement. If this video and Anthony's story don't inspire you to make a donation (even £1 will help) I don't know what will.
The parts that affected me the most in this video was when Anthony talked about there being only (Only!!) 30,000 suffers of ALS in the US and therefore the pharmaceutical industry does not see the research and manufacture of any kind of drugs to help with their suffering as financially viable. It saddens me and makes me feel blessed that I am relatively healthy. Anthony's video has posed a deep deep though in me: How much is one persons life worth?
I have made a donation but I will not be carrying out the challenge. It should take a nomination from someone else to inspire you to donate, Anthony's video should be enough.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)