It’s been spreading like wildfire — the ALS ice bucket challenge. Basically, people have been dropping buckets of ice on themselves in the name of ALS awareness. After they have dropped the bucket on themselves, they nominate who should also stand under a torrent of freezing water. Thanks to the viral marketing, the ALS foundation has experienced an over 350% increase in donations.
Mickey Rourke did it last night on Late Night with Seth Myers, and other celebrities who have braved freezing water for charity include Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon. Now, the tech world has also been experiencing the bucket. Within the past twenty four hours both the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, have both stood under the bucket.
Zuckerberg was challenged by fellow New Jersey native Governor Chris Christie and challenged Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Bill Gates, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Like a champ, he dumps the ice water on himself using a recycling bin. He followed the action with the most obvious phrase: “That was really cold.”
Nadella had the team who won the Microsoft hackathon drench him. Side note: this team won the hackathon by making it possible for users to communicate on the Surface only using their eyes. This is a great modification for those who have ALS, a disease that stunts motor function. Nadella challenges Jeff Bezos, fellow Seattle native and CEO of Amazon, and Larry Page, Google co-founder.
I guess we should can keep an eye out for those drenchings. I’d really like to see former Microsoft-CEO-now-Clippers-owner Steve Ballmer get the bucket. I imagine him saying, “I LOVE THIS COMPANY eerrrr I mean… I LOVVEE THIS FOUNDATION!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!”