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I love nitpicking!

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Because so many videos fail to do this, I
want to start with what ALS is.

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis also known as
Lou Gherig’s disease because a famous person

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had it, and that’s what happens when you’re
famous: the world memorializes you as a horrific

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rare disease that strikes suddenly and, over
a few years, rapidly degenerates the muscle-controlling

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motor neurons in your body until you are a
fully aware person trapped in your own emaciated

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flesh and soon you’re so weak you can’t
breathe right and you use machines and pain

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killers until you die.

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And there’s no cure.

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Like many kinds of cancer, ALS can be genetic,
but most victims have no identifiable reason

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they got the disease, and it’s probably
a complicated mix of environmental factors.

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Unlike cancer, it’s exceedingly rare. An
estimated 30,000 / 314,000,000 people in the

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US have it, which means the chance it’s
you is a fraction of a percent. If there’s

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a condition you do have, it’s probably heart
disease or cancer. Most of which can be prevented

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by eating right and not smoking.

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Hopefully you’re taking those preventative
measures by the way, since heart disease is

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not where the money is. Which begs the question,
what really led ice bucket challengers to

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donate to the ALS Association? Because if
the goal was to save lives, money could have

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been 500 times more effective if invested
against diseases that kill large numbers of

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people. So either each person carefully researched
where their donation was going and, fully

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aware that there are many worthy causes to
support, chose ALS… OR... the ALS Association

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won the viral lottery and people mostly donated
because it was an easy way to make themselves

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look good.

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After all, the ice bucket challenge feeds
off of peer pressure. The challenge works

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like this… well, wait a minute! There aren’t
any rules! The website lists none, and that’s

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probably because the ALS Association didn’t
even start the challenge. Ice bucket challenges

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have been around for quite a while, and the
ALS variant started with a pro athelete, and

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at that time the rules were pretty simple.

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You have 24 hours to dump ice on your head,
and if you don’t, you donate $100 to the

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ALS Association.

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And after that the rules started to morph.
So you get to challenge other people (3 to

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however many) and some say you have to donate
$10 no matter what.

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And then people started to assume crazy things
like the ice water is supposed to emulate

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what it feels like to have ALS.

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There are many articles about why the challenge
raised four times more money than the Association

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has in its entire operating budget. But it
mostly boils down to a few things, the first

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being luck.

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It’s impossible to predict what will go
viral. Ice bucket challenges happened before.

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The right people and celebrities just happened
to see the ALS one, and off it went.

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Second being the nature of the issue. One
of the difficulties anyone who wants to reduce

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poverty or hunger or homelessness or crime
has to face is the fact that these issues

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feel old, tired, and endless.

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ALS on the other hand, that’s a horrifying
disease most people have never heard about

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that might have a cure. There’s a sense
of urgency there - a sudden new problem that

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your money might be able to end.

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And let’s face it, this challenge is much
more fun than attending a $100 per plate charity

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dinner. The nature of the challenge also lends
itself to the showboating and general stupidity

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the internet thrives on. Combine that with
how easy it is for the average person to make

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a video. A smart phone can handle it. Of course
there are people in the world who don’t

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have smart phones, but then that population
isn’t necessarily the one you would go to

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for donations.

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Though in the US the people who can least
afford to give are the ones who donate the

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greatest percentage of their income. Which
may be why this viral campaign has generated

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a critical mass of mini donations. Unfortunately,
this also means there will be less money donated

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to other causes because of moral licensing.
The $112 million has to come from somewhere,

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and much will be away from other charities.

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And then of course accountability, AKA peer
pressure. This is not a distant nonprofit

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saying do this or people will be sad, this
is your friends. Your family. People who will

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know if you don’t take the challenge. Plus
if you don’t do it, they’ll also know

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that deep down inside you’re an uncaring
snob. You must pour ice on your head to prove

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you’re generous and cool.

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You’re helping solve a specific terrifying
problem, it’s fun, it’s easy, you’re

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accountable, you get to make other people
miserable by challenging them, and viola!

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A recipe for viral fundraising.

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Don’t get the wrong idea, though. While
you can replicate a challenge like this pretty

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easily for a fundraiser, it’s not going
to go viral again. Within a few months few

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people will remember much about the ALS ice
bucket challenge, and most will not donate

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to the cause again.

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And the only reason I’m not completely cynical
about this internet phenomenon and all the

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stupid videos and drama it created, the scams
and the uproars over animal testing and embryonic

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stem cell research and wasting water, the
only reason I can curb my cynicism is because

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of a single video.

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Five months ago I was diagnosed at 26 years
old. I hate talking about it. I really hate

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talking about it. Nobody wants to see a depressing
person that’s dying and has 2-5 years to

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live. They don’t want to talk about it.
They don’t want their day ruined.

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It’s hard to live in a world where there’s
lots of problems. And sometimes I think that

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the only thing we can really do is pick something
that matters to us, a cause that you can personally

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champion. So my challenge to you is not to
dump ice on your head. It’s to pick something

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that matters to you and be a champion for
that cause.

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OOooooookay! I’m going back to making dumb
videos.

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[music]