Why Is The Ice Bucket Challenge Back? TikTok’s Version Sparks Nostalgia—And Some Backlash

 

The ice bucket challenge first went viral in 2014 to raise awareness and money for ALS.

A decade-old social media trend was broadly revived on TikTok this week, as users are challenging one another to dump an ice bucket on their head for mental health awareness, mirroring the original challenge that helped raise millions for ALS—though some ALS advocates are unhappy the trend has been co-opted for another cause.

Key Facts

The newest ice bucket challenge was created by students at the University of South Carolina’s Mental Illness Needs Discussion club, which first posted on Instagram about the challenge on March 31 and said the effort was to raise awareness and funds for mental health causes.

The organization requested participants donate to Active Minds, a youth mental health nonprofit, which says it has raised more than $245,000 from the ice bucket challenge as of Tuesday afternoon.

The new ice bucket challenge went viral within a matter of weeks, and is this week’s fifth-most popular hashtag on TikTok in the United States, according to TikTok analytics, with more than 21,000 posts using the tag #icebucketchallenge.

Like the original ice bucket challenge, the newest iteration has gone viral because users who participate are tasked with challenging their friends to join in, who must then challenge other people.

Who Has Taken Part In The New Ice Bucket Challenge?

Some of TikTok’s most popular influencers have taken part in the challenge and helped it go viral, including James Charles, who participated Monday in a video posted to his more than 41 million followers. “Apparently the ice bucket challenge is a thing again. I cannot believe we are back in 2014,” Charles said, before highlighting the South Carolina MIND group. Charles challenged Haley Baylee, a model and influencer who has more than 13 million followers on TikTok, who then participated in the challenge. Some celebrities have also taken part, including former NFL player Peyton Manning, who participated on his Instagram story and challenged his brother, Eli Manning, and former NFL player Emmanuel Sanders, both of whom also participated in the challenge. “Today” show host Jenna Bush Hager participated on Monday’s broadcast, before dumping ice buckets on co-hosts Carson Daly and Savannah Guthrie.

What Was The Original Ice Bucket Challenge?

The ice bucket challenge took the social media world by storm in 2014, as many celebrities, politicians and social media users filmed themselves dumping ice over their heads. The ALS Association said the challenge began in the summer of 2014 when golfer Chris Kennedy dumped ice on his head to cheer up a relative who had ALS, which the association said was not tied to a specific charity at the time. As Kennedy challenged people, who challenged more people, the trend then blew up once Peter Frates, a Boston College baseball player who had been diagnosed with ALS, participated (Frates died in 2019). More than 1.2 million ice bucket challenge videos were shared on Facebook between June and August 2014, and more than 2.2 million users mentioned the ice bucket challenge on Twitter between late July and mid-August that year, The New York Times reported. Some of the highest-profile people to participate included billionaires Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Taylor Swift, former President George W. Bush, athletes LeBron James and Kevin Durant. Donald Trump, who was not yet president, took the challenge from the rooftop of Trump Tower in August 2014—and he challenged then-President Barack Obama, who declined but said he would donate to an ALS charity. The ALS Association said the challenge helped raise $115 million that summer for ALS research.

Chief Critics

Some ALS advocates have criticized the trend resurfacing to support a different cause. Brooke Eby, an ALS advocate who has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram, posted a video Monday stating she is “fuming” watching “people steal the ALS ice bucket challenge for a different cause when ALS still doesn’t have a cure.” The most-liked comment under Eby’s video compared the new ice bucket challenge to taking a pink ribbon, commonly known as a symbol of breast cancer awareness, and turning it into an animal rights symbol, stating, “All causes are important, but it’s not right.” Another TikTok user garnered 150,000 likes on a video stating it makes “absolutely no sense” the trend was used for a different cause, stating the challenge was the “only thing that brought attention to ALS,” which was not as widely known prior to the viral challenge.

Contra

The ALS Association has endorsed the ice bucket challenge resurfacing to support mental health awareness. “The Ice Bucket challenge is back,” the ALS Association said in an Instagram post Monday, urging participants to raise awareness for both mental health and ALS. “Mental health impacts everyone, including people affected by ALS,” the organization said. “Proud Ice Bucket Challenge parent moment,” the organization said in a comment under Charles’ video taking part in the challenge.