Why I’m not pouring a bucket of ice water on my head…

OR: the bucket stops here

Miemo Penttinen @miemo

Bucket designed by Anand A Nair from the Noun Project

So I was challenged to do the ALS ice bucket thingie…

…but there’s not gonna be buckets, ice or YouTube video from me.Why? For 3 reasons:

It’s gotten out of hand as a media stunt. The focus is more on the person doing it than the cause or donating – it’s become a part celebrity reality-TV, a part a contest on who comes up with the most elaborate way for emptying the bucket (or fails in it comically) or who can show the hottest body while doing it.

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It’s worn out its welcome. The ice bucket meme has been going on for weeks now, and like any other meme it does get old. People are already complaining that social media feeds are filled with nothing but ice water. Hell, there are even companies doing the challenge just for free advertising visibility. Let’s not turn this into a tired meme everybody hates seeing yet another time, let’s stop while it’s still at least somewhat fun.

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3 It encourages a model where charities are chosen based on which has the best ad agency. While this does create momentarily spikes in contributions for the trending charity, there are also other charities just as worthy who haven’t gone viral. It’s time to spread the monetary love to other recipients too…

So: I’ll gladly donate to ALSA.org, they are fighting a good fight. My contributions just doesn’t involve any

buckets or videos. !

BUT I will also as of today become a monthly donor to Amnesty, Greenpeace and Red Cross –

something I’ve meant to do a long time.

And I challenge YOU to consider all the numerous charities out there –

which ones do you find most relevant?

Support them! Give some money now or become a regular donor if you can (that way they don’t have to spend money

on creating campaigns after another)

or maybe it’s all because I’m just a grumpy guy… ;)