By Lynn Im ’15, Entertainment Section Editor
Halloween is the holiday where you get to dress up as your favorite movie character, object, or issue of the year. When world was bombarded by Gangnam Style in 2012, the most popular Halloween costume in 2012 was Psy. A tongue, and two bun hair costume inspired by Miley Cyrus was the top costume in 2013. Halloween is the time where people emit their creative craziness. Some people choose to wear more classic costumes but some trendsetters dress up as one of the hot issues of the year. This year, consider being an “Ice Bucket Challenge” for Halloween.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge went viral throughout social media during mid-2014. The purpose is to promote awareness about ALS and to encourage people to donate to research. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”, is a neurodegenerative disease that causes nerve cells to atrophy, eventually leading to a loss of voluntary muscle control and even complete paralysis. ALS is very rare—only 30,000 people have the disease. With such a small demand, there is very little money in the market of developing a cure, so researchers have little to no incentive to do so.
Each nominated challenger dumps a bucket of ice water on their head to promote awareness for the disease. They also get to nominate three people to encourage them to join the challenge. Each challenge should be done within 24 hours or the nominee must donate $100 to ALS Association.
People all around the world have participated in this challenge, including some notable people, such as Dr. Robert Macrae, Country Day’s Head of School, and Bill Gates, the former CEO of Microsoft.
When Halloween costume marketers began to look for the best costumes to attract customers for this year, the Ice Bucket Challenge must have popped up like rain in the drought weather. One such site, www.brandsonsale.com, encourages customers to promote awareness for the ALS through their costume. For $40, the site will send you a blue bucket decorated with a big piece of plastic wrap and a real ice cube tray. If you are a DIYer, go to a dollar store and buy a bucket and ice cube tray. Done for $2.
I recommend this costume to some adults who want to keep their hands occupied by their costume. To become the perfect “Ice Bucket Challenge”, you’ll have to hold the bucket above your head the whole time. Also, the costume comes with a real ice cube box that you’ll also need to carry with your other hand. Therefore both of your hands will be busy to hold those items and it will limit your opportunities to consume terrifying quantities of candy. However, I don’t recommend this outfit for children who go trick or treating because it makes it harder to ask for candy. Likewise people who want to dance like crazy should look for another chance to promote ALS awareness.
I am concerned that along with few criticisms that arose around the challenge, people have begun to forget the true purpose of the Ice Bucket Challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to make people aware of ALS. And more awareness leads to more research so the ALS community can get a cure. Sometimes people only focus on the fun part. It is a brilliant idea that , having watched our friends drench themselves on Facebook, we can wear the “Ice Bucket Challenge” for Halloween, but something is wrong with making money off the challenge. Perhaps the companies who sell the Ice Bucket Challenge costume could donate all the money they earn to the ALS Association, rather than simply taking advantage of such a wonderful cause.
Sources: ALS Association, www.alsa.org
