Want to see all the celebrities who have poured a bucket of ice cold water over their heads? Hell yeah! Want to see super, super A-listers doing it and then nominating even bigger stars to do it? Yes! Welcome to the Ice Bucket Challenge where The Hunger Games meets Total Wipeout in a show of determination, bravery and resolve. It’s not hard to see why WE love seeing them doing it. First of all, it’s a great leveller. What does Anna Wintour look like? Not so chic dans l’bucket. But secondly, we can also get involved! See it’s for charity.

Yes beautiful Beckham and sexy Trousersnake (and not so sexy George Bush) have been lining up for charity ALS in the US and Macmillan Cancer Support in the UK and asking people to donate afterwards. The origins have been chronicled very well by a video on the Daily Telegraph who look to the craze starting on 15th July 2014 when golfer Charles Kennedy was nominated by a friend to do an Ice Bucket Challenge. The golfer picked ALS as the charity the money should go to, and nominated his cousin’s wife…and so it starts. The premise is that you give your nominee 24 hours to donate £10 and douse themselves in water and then nominate two more people to take up the challenge. If you decline, as Barack Obama did (presumably not wanting to ruin the carpet in The White House), then you pay more money, a forfeit of £100. Simple yah?

The PR and marketing concept is pretty familiar and reminds me of the no makeup selfie campaign from earlier this year. But where the no makeup selfie strayed into vanity, this seems to have plugged into some part of us that still wants to be in the playground. Our childish selves are playing games, egging each other on, chasing each other around. It’s quite nice to see, that famous people are nominating other famous people and clearly enjoying being part of the Ice Bucket Challenge gang. It really taps into that notion of gamification. We operate in packs, more comfortable when we’re in the gang. And where the no makeup selfie could be a little exclusive, this is all inclusive. Anyone can get involved, you can be anywhere, wearing anything. And we’re pretty happy sharing. The bigger the names who get involved, the more excited we get and the video content is easily shareable.

However there has been criticism as essentially this campaign cannot be controlled and you’re relying on people to get it, they don’t always understand it. So people are chucking buckets of water over themselves….and forgetting to name the charity….orrrr forgetting to donate. A classic case of slacktivism yah – where you can ponce around but forget the cash bit. I’ve got an iPhone, I have a bucket, that’s it right? GO! As Slate’s Will Oremus says ‘a lot of participants are probably spending more money on the bagged ice than on ALS research.’ He continues ‘ more than anything else the Ice Bucket videos feel like an exercise in raising awareness of one’s own zaniness, altruism and/or attractiveness in a wet T-Shirt.’

Makes you more impressed by Charlie Sheen who poured the money he was to donate on himself…and less impressed than those businesses/celebrities/media/marketing who are now weighing in to jump on the bandwagon. Especially the media outlets who just cannot resist reporting every bloody video to hijack the traffic. Myself included.

That said, let’s keep talking about it and raising awareness while we can as this will be a short lived craze, a flash in the pan, or the Ice Bucket so to speak. So keep nominating, AND donating so everyone wins.