ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: A Viral Movement

In the summer of 2014, the ALS Association pulled in more money in a few weeks than it had in the entire prior year, raising over $115 million against roughly $2.8 million the year before. It barely spent a dime to do it. Participants supplied the videos, the distribution, and the social pressure, dumping ice water on themselves and publicly daring three friends to follow within 24 hours. The whole thing spread like wildfire, and then it revealed its own limits.

For founders and operators, this case is about why some launches detonate while polished, expensive ones go nowhere. It sharpens the decision of how to design a campaign people perform rather than passively watch. The three specific conditions that turn an ordinary action into a self-replicating mechanic, and why this particular rocket never became a flywheel, are what the case unpacks.