Ice Bucket Challenge: The best charity videos from business leaders
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Version 0 of 1. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, over the past few weeks you would have watched a cascade of videos featuring individuals being drenched in freezing cold water. The ALS ice bucket challenge has been the viral campaign of the summer – and with good reason. It helped to raise $98.2m for the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Association between 29 July and 28 August alone, compared to $2.7m last year. As we move into autumn the emergence of videos appears to have slowed – although that’s probably because there’s hardly anyone left to participate in the global charity drive. Among the millions upon millions of videos posted on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are those showing some of the world’s most famous business leaders, including Richard Branson, Sheryl Sandberg and Bill Gates. In case you missed them, here’s a look back at their efforts - hopefully they donated more than the suggested $10… Richard Branson, Virgin Group founder The magnate grinned and swore as he was covered in ice. He nominated the 60,000 people who work for Virgin to take up the challenge next. Phil J Clarke, Tesco Ireland chief executive In an hilarious take, Clarke was filmed in a suit jacket and brightly coloured shorts. He announced that the retailer would be making a donation of €10,000 to the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association. Dan Doctoroff and Mike Bloomberg, CEO and founder of Bloomberg The pair threw buckets of water over one another, alongside a large group of employees. Wendy Clark, Coca-Cola senior vice president Who better than the iconic polar bear to help you raise money for a good cause? Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder "That was really cold," Zuckerberg said as he nominated Bill Gates, his Facebook partner Sheryl Sandberg and Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings. Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation co-founder Responding to Zuckerberg's nomination, Gates designed a structure that would allow him to pour a large tub of ice water over his entire body. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO Also taking up the challenge at Zuckerberg's request, the executive was joined by a host of Facebook employees. Tim Cook, Apple CEO US musician Michael Franti did the honours at Apple's campus in California. The ice bucket challenge raises money and awareness for the neuro-degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), alos known as Motor Neurone Disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's Disease in the US. It has been criticised in some quarters as an exercise in vanity but there is no doubt that it has made an impact. Shannon Murray, an actor, writer and disability rights campaigner, told the BBC: "It's been very celebrity-orientated and it plays into our culture of putting everything about ourselves out there on social media. [...] But actually the bottom line is that people weren't talking about MND two months ago, and now they are." |