It’s so COOL to be negative about something everybody loves. We saw it with Robin Williams. In every stream expressing understandable surprise and sadness about Williams’ death, there was at least one fly in the ointment. My favourite? The guy who wrote, “my uncle killed himself last year. Where was the worldwide outpouring for him?” That’s what the social media BLOCK feature is for.
The latest target is the truly brilliant Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS. Â It’s more than just dumping ice water on your head. ALS is coming off the lips of people around the world who may have never heard of the disease before. And donations are rolling in. In Canada, the organization’s fundraising goal was $10,000. Â Now it’s $1.5-million because of a flood of donations. Last year the US chapter of the ALS Association raised $1.8-mil. Since this campaign launched they’ve taken in more than $15-million. There is no question whatsoever that it’s working. Criticism just makes a person look foolish. So I randt. (Note: It’s just straight voice because of a production issue.)
Love it – esp. the “shut up” part. I say if they have another way to raise this kind of money and awareness (seems EVERYONE knows someone struck with this horrific disease) then they can bloody well do it. But until then, congrats to everyone who’s taken part with ice and hopefully cold hard cash. Anything that makes us look beyond ourselves (and our precious social media) is a very, very good thing. And nothing is cooler than ice.