In this blog post, we take a look at the social impact of the Ice Bucket Challenge, the image marketing of the celebrities involved, and the sincerity of their donations.
In the summer of 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge spread rapidly around the world, starting with a very simple rule. Participants would fill a large bucket with ice water, pour it over their heads, and then nominate three people to take the challenge next. Those nominated had 24 hours to either pour ice water over themselves or donate $100 to the ALS Association. The campaign quickly attracted worldwide participation, with numerous celebrities such as former US President Barack Obama, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple CEO Tim Cook joining in. In South Korea, the craze began in August 2014 with the participation of a singer, and in just two months, about 6,000 people from all walks of life joined the campaign. The ALS Association announced that it had raised approximately $100 million (approximately 120 billion won) through the Ice Bucket Challenge during the month of August 2014, and in South Korea, donations exceeding several hundred million won were collected.
What was it that caused the Ice Bucket Challenge to spread so quickly around the world and draw so many people to participate voluntarily? Of course, the participation of celebrities had a significant impact, but there was something more to it than that. Unlike other charity campaigns, the Ice Bucket Challenge was a participatory performance that combined fun, emotion, and challenge.
Participants went beyond simple donations, attracting attention through dramatic scenes of pouring ice water over themselves and spreading it through social media. A short video instantly attracted the attention and actions of countless people. For celebrities, the Ice Bucket Challenge was a golden opportunity to positively highlight their image while also expecting marketing effects.
Of course, many of them accepted the challenge out of genuine sympathy for the suffering of ALS patients, but there was also a clear desire to appeal to the public. For example, Bill Gates built his own device to pour ice water over himself, showing off his knowledge of physics, while also featuring Microsoft’s new product in the video. Politicians used the challenge to build a down-to-earth image and emphasized their solidarity by nominating fellow politicians as the next participants. Celebrities and athletes used the challenge to show off their fit bodies and healthy image, and Samsung utilized the Ice Bucket Challenge in its smartphone advertisements to emphasize the waterproof feature of its products.
Meanwhile, despite realizing that the campaign was being used as a tool for image-making by celebrities and marketing by companies, the public did not lose interest or support. This is linked to the characteristics of empathy and tolerance in Korean society. For example, during election season, politicians visit markets and eat tteokbokki and sundae to portray themselves as ordinary citizens. Even though people question their sincerity, they end up supporting them. Dancing CEOs, joking professors, and bosses who make fools of themselves entertain the public and break down the barriers between authority and everyday life. The Ice Bucket Challenge was no different. Seeing famous people with authority being doused with ice water and making silly faces gave the public a sense of exhilaration and familiarity at the same time. People turned a blind eye to their self-promotion and commercial intentions to some extent amid the exchange of such images and emotions.
However, underlying this trend is the serious reality of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is an incurable disease that causes progressive muscle weakness and nerve stiffness, eventually leading to respiratory failure and death. Patients live painful lives literally fighting for survival amid the fear of their bodies gradually stiffening. However, pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to develop new drugs because they are not profitable due to the small number of patients worldwide, and governments and international organizations have not been able to come up with practical support measures for them. In this reality, the Ice Bucket Challenge was literally a desperate measure and a “unique cry.”
Fortunately, the campaign did not fail to produce results. In 2023, Tofersen, a treatment for ALS, received conditional approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This drug is effective for patients with a mutation in the SOD1 gene, which is known to be one of the causes of ALS, offering a glimpse of hope for a cure. Although it is not yet a treatment that can be applied to all patients, the Ice Bucket Challenge is significant in that the attention and donations it generated led to progress in research for an actual treatment.
However, there are still many marginalized groups that need our attention and help, including patients with ALS. There are children in Africa who are starving without a sip of water, elderly people who live alone, and boys and girls who have to take care of their younger siblings and act as parents. There are still many people waiting for help in every corner of society, and their reality is much more desperate than we think. The $100 million raised during the months-long craze was far from the $1 billion needed to develop a cure for ALS. Moreover, even at this moment, we may be silent in the face of the suffering of other marginalized people.
What is needed now is not a momentary performance, but sustained and structural attention. A change more powerful than a short video of celebrities pouring ice water over themselves comes from the small acts of consideration and solidarity we show toward others in our daily lives. We must be able to face the cold reality and draw out sincere concern and love from within, as if pouring ice water over myself and the whole world at every moment. Only then will the Ice Bucket Challenge be remembered as a meaningful movement that changed the times, rather than a mere fad.
