The ALS Association’s viral marketing campaign for raising funds to to fight the ALS disease has gone mainstream in a really short time. The association has already received over $31 million in donations. The Ice Bucket Challenge (#icebucketchallenge) has already been taken by celebrities such as the WWE wrestler Triple H, actors Dwayne ”the Rock’ Johnson and Jean-Claude van Damme, singers Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, a venture capitalist Daymond John and footballers Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gerard Piqué just to name but a few.
The challenge involves people getting doused with buckets of ice water on video, posting that video to social media, then nominating others to do the same. This effort is there to raise the awareness of the ALS disease. People can either accept the challenge or make a donation to an ALS Charity of their choice, or do both.
ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
Since being founded in 1985, the ALS Association’s mission has been to do and fund global research on ALS disease and to cooperate with government, academia, industry and other nonprofit organizations. The association has funded over $99 million in research and clinical management projects.
Since the world is going crazy about the phenomenon, metal bucket manufacturers are forced to make more buckets. Galvanized steel is one of the best materials because steel keeps the ice chilled longer than plastic, and the galvanized coating protects the surface from corrosion.
Shanghai Metal Corporation is also a major supplier of galvanized steel that suits perfectly for building cold ice shower buckets. To know more about our galvanized steel, please visit our website. Please also follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also download our new mobile application by scanning the QR code below.
#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe, #IceBucketChallenge
Tuomas P. // SMC Editor
Read more about the ALS Association and consider donating for good cause.
Sources: the ALS Association, USA Today, Youtube
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