On a rainy evening in Mumbai, I entered a surprisingly sparsely-populated bus. Sitting before me were two young men, both in their mid-twenties and both with latest mobile phones in their possession. Owing to their rather high decibel level, I was able to hear every blessed word they said: here is an account of their conversation.

“Hey did you see Harrison Ford take the Bucket Challenge? I sent you the YouTube link earlier this morning.” said Person A.

“Oh yes, he seemed pretty relaxed didn’t he, despite the ice cold water. I saw Jennifer Aniston take it as well,” replied Person B.

“The ACC Bucket challenge has gone viral hasn’t it, everybody is taking,” announced Person A.

“I think it is ACL?” inquired an unsure Person B.

“Wait, is it ACC or ACL or ALC?” asked Person A.

“It is the initials of the company that started this.” asserted Person B rather confidently.

“No, it is a donation, I remember them saying I gave money or something like that,” said Person A.

“No, no, it is like a bet, you know I challenge you to do this if you can you pay me this much,” asserted Person B.

“Wait, I am reasonably sure it is a charity – something about the environment. I know Harrison Ford works for the environment; he even did this series about it. It has to be about the environment,” said a befuddled Person A.

“Yes I know, but this has nothing to do with it, he has the Star Wars film coming out soon and this is like a promotion, just to get his profile high,” said Person B.

“Wow really?” said an astounded Person A.

“But this is what you call innovation man. Think about it, the company ACL or whatever it is got so many famous people to participate in their challenge.  The celeb feels ‘cool’ to be part of it and the product gets free publicity,” said Person B.

“Is it not amazing how these advertising folks come up with ideas?” asked an admiring Person A.

“Yes, that’s what they are paid to do buddy,” said Person B.

“They do it rather well don’t they?” said Person A.

Just then Person B began to look through his phone and suddenly he seemed to have a Eureka moment.

“I googled ACL, I got Anterior Cruciate Ligament, Access Control Limit….Wait! It is Ambuja Cement Limited! Wow did you see that?” said Person B.

“Get out of here, why would international celebrities advertise Ambuja Cement for free?” questioned a befuddled Person A, who then began googling himself.

“Hey, wait, it is ALS, I googled the word Ice Bucket Challenge. The name of the company who started this,” said Person B, but before he could complete his sentence he was interrupted.

“By the way did you know Gwyneth Paltrow took the challenge dressed in a skimpy bikini?” said Person A.

“Really? Wow. Do you have the video?” asked Person B.

“Yes, here it is, I have 3G, look how fast the video loads. Look at Gwyn, so hot.” said Person A.

“Ohh she is from Iron Man, yes she is hot,” said Person B.

“You know what, we can do this too. Just for fun!” suggested Person A.

“In a bikini? I think not my friend,” said Person B with an air of mockery as they both burst into titters.

“No you idiot, I mean the Ice Bucket Challenge, we can film ourselves and put it on YouTube. Fully clad, just to be clear.” said Person A.

“Yes, and we can challenge Person D and Person E,” said Person B.

“Wait! Let’s challenge Person M, he would never do it! The damn coward Person M,” said Person A.

But just before the conversation could get more riveting, the bus announcer spoke up  to suggest their destination was the next stop, so they slid their phones into their pockets, slung their bags on their shoulders and left talking of plans to shoot their Ice Bucket videos and upload it on YouTube.

So what were these gents talking about?  I myself was rather ignorant on the matter, and hence I decided to do a bit of investigation.  The following is the outcome of my investigation.

It is the ALS Bucket Challenge; the gents were correct about the bucket-drenching, but missed the part where the celebrity donates money for ALS.  ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – in commoner’s terms it is referred to as a motor neuron disease.  It affects the nervous system that causes the person suffering to lose basic functions such as walking or talking.  Dr. Stephen Hawking suffers from this debilitating condition. For more information about ALS please go here.

Celebrities getting involved in worthy causes is nothing new and we have seen famous people work wonders before.  A great example is the Polio public service announcements that were delivered so effectively by Amitabh Bachchan, quite easily the most influential among celebrities in India. But all involved put the message above everything. The outcome was a rather succinct, earnest, catchy message that was delivered effectively. Soon the “two drops of polio vaccine” became a catch phrase that led to awareness being spread all over the country and shortly after, India became polio free. Rather commendable, and without any sort of pandering or forced ploys and stunts.

In the case of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the frivolity reduced what should have been a charity event into a vain, narcissistic, celebrity-driven gimmicky stunt that fed on people’s urge to blindly follow their favorite star and let it be known to the world via social media. The celebrity ended up hijacking and ultimately overshadowing the cause. The gents in the bus cannot be blamed for not knowing the cause since the presentation was more personality driven.

To be fair, the Ice Bucket Challenge did raise money and awareness, but somewhere the spectacle ended up trivialising the cause. Hopefully in future we will elect more socially and morally acceptable methods of raising awareness that will place the cause before the celebrity.