AdWeek
by Patrick Coffee
May 8th, 2018
Do you remember a viral craze called “the ice bucket challenge?”
It was truly a charity campaign for the viral social media age. Every celebrity, semi-celebrity and wannabe celebrity participated (including one Mark Zuckerberg). Most brands also found a way to join in the generous fun.
Yet, while the effort won two highly coveted Gold Lions at Cannes in 2015, some may ask, looking back, how much it served to educate the public about the topic at hand: ALS, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, for the Yankees star who first made it famous.
Only 2 percent of the approximately 17 million related videos in the ice bucket series led directly to a donation, according to advocacy group The ALS Association.
That’s why Boston creative agency MMB, which currently counts the ALS Association as a client, took a very different route. Its new campaign looks to humanize the condition by illustrating challenges faced by the estimated 20,000 Americans living with ALS at any given time.
