Oh right, cuz that’s what we do.

I gotta admit. When I first saw the ice bucket challenge, I too was in the camp of ” this is silly, I wish people would just donate instead”…

It seemed to me to be more of a stunt than an actual way to raise money for ALS.

But I woke up y’all.

Even if it didn’t raise money for ALS, wasn’t it just a good thing that the letters “ALS” were in peoples mouths? Even if they didn’t know much about it….At least they were talking about it. Which is one of the hardest and most challenging things to do when it comes to public health marketing. Joining the conversation. Well who would of thought the concept of dousing oneself in ice cold water would not only get ALS into the conversation, but dominating it. Uh, not me…if I had thought of that…that woulda made me way cooler in grad school.

ALS has always needed the right person to represent it’s mission, get the word out, make it known. Well you know who is talking about it now? Oprah, Jimmy Fallon, Taylor Swift, George Bush, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake (yea dawg), Cookie Monster for lordy sakes, um EVERYONE. Meaning that people from little tots to big adults are aware of ALS, participating, talking about it, sharing the news…did I mention OPRAH??

I know some of you are grumpy. I know some of you think it’s a waste of water. I know some of you think it’s doing no good and it has no lasting impact and the funding can never be sustained this way…the only thing I can think of is how much Annie would have just LOVED this whole thing. She worked really hard to get ALS out there, to get people talking, to share the courage it takes to fight this disease, to raise awareness. She went to Congress, to her state officials, to her friends, her family, she raised loads of money and through all her efforts alone, nothing has had more impact than a bucket of ice water that you pour on your head. Isn’t that enough to make it a good thing?

In a few weeks, this will probably die down. We’ll all be dried off, our donations done, and our good feelings of being philanthropists done until the next big thing comes along. But while it’s still circulating, let’s just let it be what it is…a really great social media public awareness campaign that is also a great way to cool off in the hot summer months….

Hey, at least it’s not the ice bucket challenge in winter eh….am I right?

Need more information? Go to http://every90minutes.org/.

And if you didn’t read this perspective yet…do that.