Everything can be branded. Whether you are controlling the message or not, every person, organization, business, trend etc. has a brand image. While it’s hard enough to create a solid image for your product/company/artist etc., changing that brand image can be almost impossible. A disease can’t possibly be “branded” though right? Of course it can. Look at what Susan G. Komen and her organization did for breast cancer. They made the pink ribbon synonymous with breast cancer and helped increase awareness not only during October, but year-round. In addition, they made something that was once a female-centric issue relevant across the genders. Even the NFL gets involved in the cause yearly. This wildly successful re-brand has helped millions. The problem that causes often have when they try to rebrand themselves is they can come off too preachy or rely on confusing statistics. Finding a way around this is the key for effective fundraising.Enter ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” as it ended the career of the legendary Yankee player in 1939. Now, while Lou Gehrig is a sports legend and one of the greatest baseball players of all time, he retired 75 years ago and does not resonate strongly with the younger generations. ALS was in need of re-branding.

By now, everyone has seen a dozen (if not hundreds) of Ice Bucket Challenges. You pour a bucket of ice water on your head, and nominate one to three other people to do the same. They then have 24 hours to complete the challenge and nominate people or they have to donate $100 to the ALSA. When I first started seeing these challenges being posted on social media, I didn’t get it. I thought they were pretty silly. I really didn’t see the value in people pouring water and a few pieces of ice over their heads. So I started to see these challenges on my social media timelines and sure enough, people began to nominate me. Now, at first I was very skeptical of celebrities doing the challenge. People will take any opportunity to get some press, and I didn’t want to feel like I was exploiting people’s suffering for a few thousand Facebook likes. Then I looked into what ALS is. I learned about the disease and saw that it impacts people in the same way that cancer, lupus, Lyme disease, and others have severely impacted people that I know and love. According to the ALSA’s website, “as many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time.” That’s when it really hit me.