Why Has The Ice Bucket Challenge Been So Popular?

Me and my dog doing the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Almost everyone has heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge over the last couple of months. From celebrities to young children, pets to those who does even use social media, thousands worldwide are getting involved. This internet trend follows on from others which have been popular this year such as NekNominate originating in Australia between January and February, and the #nomakeupselfie campaign in March which raised over £8 million for Cancer Research UK in six days. But this trend has gone even further, with some figures claiming that over £48 million has been raised so far. The question I am trying to answer is, why has the Ice Bucket Challenge been so popular?

One reason which I think has been really important is that the challenge is hassle-free. A bag of ice costs £1 from supermarkets and in the Western world water is pretty easy to come by. You don't necessarily need a fancy contraption like Bill Gates, just an old mop bucket will do. There isn't much preparation necessary and other than the fact that you will be a bit cold and wet afterwards, there aren't any side effects or bad consequences (as there was with NekNominate). You can take part in the challenge wherever and whenever, on your lunch break, in the middle of town, on the beach or in the bath. As long as you have a towel nearby and a change of clothes then it's a reasonably easy challenge.

Celebrity participation has also played a massive part in raising this trend's publicity. With David Beckham, Simon Cowell, Lady Gaga, Jessie J, Kate Moss, Tom Hanks and many more taking on the challenge it's clear to see how popular it has been. An article I read recently reports that Celebrity endorsements fail to boost engagement with charities but I think the challenge does not fit to their findings. The Ice Bucket Challenge has been reported on hundreds of news channels globally which has increased people's awareness of ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or motor neurone disease) and there has been a fantastic influx of donations over the last months. When people see celebrities getting involved in the same trends as us and doing their bit for charity it promotes the idea to others.

This challenge is quite different from those before it. The NekNominate challenge primarily involved students and those who drunk alcohol. Although some did substitute alcohol for food or other disgusting solutions, this trend was reasonably exclusive. Similarly, the #nomakeupselfie campaign was targeted at women who wear make-up. Men who did want to get involved took to putting on as much make-up as possible but there were nowhere near as many taking part. The pictures posted by women who don't wear much make-up on a daily basis were not particularly exciting and those who wear a lot were not overly keen to take it off even for a good cause. And so this trend did not last as long as the Ice Bucket Challenge has. Anyone can take part in this challenge, poor or rich, young or old.

The Ice Bucket Challenge has an entertainment factor that doesn't seem to get old. Although most Facebook timelines at the moment are filled with these videos, there are still new and hilarious versions. Some of my favourites include people using JCB's, diggers and loaders; people falling over because their buckets are too heavy or getting their buckets dropped on them; people getting smacked on the head with MASSIVE chunks of ice and people managing to miss their own heads! It's like a really specific episode of You've Been Framed that goes on and on. People are getting entertainment combined with a feel-good factor of donating. Here's a good mix of some of the fails: (some strong language)

One last reason which most people might not think of but is also important is that this isn't a manufactured campaign. ALS didn't start it, there are basically no rules and it's not being pushed upon people. You are free to do the challenge in anyway you want, as long as there's ice, it goes over you and you nominate that's all that matters.

COLOURBLIND: A Consumer Behaviour Experiment

From my previous posts you can see I've recently started learning how to make my own sweets. At a wedding tea party last weekend I took this one step further. I used my new-found sweet making talents to do an experiment on consumer behaviour. I wanted to find out if people's sweet choices were based on appearance or flavour, specifically their choice of heart-shaped wine gums! Does colour blind your decision?

Initially I wanted to make a variety of different flavoured, red wine gums. However, this presented difficulties, not in the sweet making process, as many food flavourings are colourless, but how would I be able to tell if people even realised there were different flavours? I would have had to draw attention to their differences which is not something I wanted to do. I wanted my experiment to be as unobtrusive as possible.

My other alternative, and the path I finally decided to take, was to make a variety of coloured wine gums, all in one flavour. This way I would be able to see if people choose sweets based on their colour rather than flavour. I chose lemon as the flavour for my wine gums and made the standard wine gum/fruit pastel colours: red, orange, yellow, green and purple. I wanted to see if people had preconceptions about the wine gums based on their colours. Would they assume the red was strawberry for example? And would they continue to eat the red ones, even though they tasted exactly the same as the other colours?

At the tea party I filmed the five separate bowls of different coloured wine gums. I then edited this footage and created this video:

I'd love to know what you think about this experiment so please leave me a comment, tweet me @_Sam_Blundell using #colourblind or let me know personally.

Mission Impossible: Finding Something to Wear for Graduation

Next week is Graduation Week at the University of Leicester. Each day has a morning and an afternoon ceremony where hundreds of students from each subject sit in a large hall, waiting until it's their chance to walk up some stairs, shake a man's hand they've never seen before, and sit down again. Graduation is the culmination of your educational achievements to date, it's where you officially get what you came to university for, your degree, and yet it's not really the most exciting part of the day.

For most students the exciting part is what you wear. I'm sure next week my Facebook timeline will be flooded with people posing for photos with family and friends in gowns and mortarboards (those hat-things people wear). Of course, I'll be doing the same myself and I'm not criticising people who do, I'm just saying that's the bit everyone really looks forward to. That's why choosing the right thing to wear is very important. I'm sure by now most people have already got their outfits sorted but just in case you've left it to the last minute, hopefully this will help.

Firstly you need to find out what sort of hood and/or gown you will be wearing. This is dependent on what sort of degree you have done. Here's the list if you're at Leicester, I don't know if it's the same at all universities but you definitely need to find out when planning your outfit. Having done a BA, I'm going to be wearing a black gown with a white and red hood, like the picture. This immediately ruled out some colours for me (pink, green, red and blue).
The guidelines on what ladies can wear are quite vague, 'A smart top or blouse with skirt or formal trousers. Alternatively a suitable dress may be worn with formal/smart shoes', which doesn't really help. I don't want to wear a blouse, I've had 5+ years of that at school/college already and a dress gives you a lot more options so that's what I've decided on. 
A friend who graduated a couple of years ago was also really helpful. She explained that if you're wearing a dress you need to pin your hood to it and they can be quite heavy. She advised against wearing lightweight, thin materials like silk or chiffon as the pin could rip or leave a permanent whole. This is very sensible advice but it's not exactly easy to find a thick dress in the middle of summer! 

On Wednesday (with a week and two days to go) I went shopping for the perfect graduation dress. In my mind I had a good idea of what I wanted, either a dark purple dress or a black and white dress with geometric panels. I wanted them to be quite fitted and suitable to wear for other occasions such as weddings or at work. As this is a serious event my usual go-to shops like New Look, River Island and Topshop were off the list and instead shops like John Lewis and Karen Millen were on it. This was also quite a good time to go shopping as most places had summer sales. 

First up was Karen Millen, not somewhere I've ever shopped before, and after a bit of browsing I found two similar dresses with black, white and grey panels in quite a stretchy material. These were quite close to what I had been hoping to buy, however, I very quickly realised that finding the right dress that fitted was going to be a lot harder than I thought. Being 5 foot 3 inches (or 160cm) can make sizing a problem sometimes, especially having a short top-half of my body. In these dresses I had a problem where if the bottom-half of the dress looked nice, the top and shoulders looked baggy and if I tried on a size where the top-half fitted nicely, the bottom-half was far too tight for a formal occasion.

I had the same problem in Marks and Spenser (and quite a few other shops). I found a nice black and white dress, geometric panels and shaped - exactly what I wanted - but when I tried it on I had the same issue. I tried to capture what I meant by it being too big over my shoulders and around my neck in this picture. 

Even in John Lewis with a petite section, the style of dress I wanted was too big over my shoulders. I was starting to have a serious panic about not being able to find anything at all! Everywhere was either selling lightweight summer dresses or didn't fit me properly. My best possibility so far was a white dress I'd tried on in Lipsy, not exactly that formal looking and I couldn't wear white to a wedding but at least I had one option now. 

As a distraction from all the stress I decided to buy some really nice, soft brown sandals from Office (only £28!). Obviously nothing to do with graduation but I needed sandals.





Finally, after at least four hours of searching with no breaks I found a dress that I liked! I decided if I wanted something that fitted well I would have to give up on my imagined style of dress. I went into a shop called CC which is paired with Viyella (owned by Austin Reed). Although I was probably the youngest person in there I had given up caring by this point. I was on a mission to find a dress for graduation and that was all that mattered. I picked up anything that was black and white, and went to try them on.

This is the dress I found: 

It doesn't look as good on the hanger so I decided to model it as well. I think this shape looks much better than the ones I was trying before. I like capped sleeves, oval neckline and that it kicks out after my waist. It's made from for 98% cotton and 2% elastane with a polyester lining. It feels quite thick and hopefully won't be damaged by the pin. Overall all I'm happy with this dress. Although it wasn't what I had in mind originally, I think it looks nice on and is appropriate for the occasion. I'm going to wear it with some gold heart-shaped studs I bought from Accessorize and plain black pumps which I already have. I'll probably wear my hair down and straightened so that it doesn't get in the way of the hat. 

I hope my experience helps any last minute shoppers and that readers can relate to my difficulties! 

Good luck!