Said to have begun when Pete Frates—a former Boston College baseball player who has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)—posted a video on Facebook challenging professional baseball players to dump a bucket of ice water over their head, the ASL Ice Bucket Challenge has become an internet sensation.
According to reports, the fund-raising and awareness drive has generated over US$50 million in donations so far. We've been collecting evidence of professionals from the advertising, marketing and media industries getting involved, and here are a few we've picked out. If you want your video included, please tweet @CampaignAsia or post it to our Facebook page.
On a related note, see today's column from Ken Mandel on the minor backlash to the ice-bucket phenomenon: No, the ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge isn't a waste of time (or water).
Tom Doctoroff of JWT got help from a hotel staff member in Tokyo who seems a bit hesitant, as this guest request was definitely NOT covered in training.
The team at Havas Worldwide, Kuala Lumpur got a serious amount of ice involved:
Hiro Fujita, planning director at McCann Worldgroup, Japan was diagnosed with ALS in 2010 and has released a book about his life as an ALS patient. You can watch Hiro's discussion on ALS at TEDxTokyo 2014 here:
Bob Chua, chairman and CEO of Pulse Group, took time out from what looks like a very stressful day in Bali to perform the challenge. Extra points for combining the ice-bucket challenge with the Nestea Plunge.
Some staffers at MTV Asia seriously drenched themselves.
Waggener Edstrom's SVP & APAC lead Matthew Lackie had a crowd of onlookers, including one particularly helpful employee with towels at the ready.
Rob Campbell, head of planning at Wieden+Kennedy, Shanghai, didn't seem to have a bucket handy when he took the challenge.
Bob Jeffrey, chairman and CEO of JWT Worldwide
Employees at Yahoo Hong Kong
David Sable, global CEO of Y&R challenged his entire company to get involved:
Dave McCaughan, managing director of McCann Worldgroup, Hong Kong:
Andy Yeo, strategic account manager at Hootsuite, Asia Pacific, opted to take his challenge inside: