The Ice Bucket Challenge Is Back!

Cold water. A bucket full of ice cubes. A propped-up phone. Or perhaps a cameraman recording your angles as you get ready to get splashed. Ready for a viral moment on apps like Instagram and Vine. All this sound familiar? You may recognize this as the Ice Bucket Challenge. Yep, the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge phenomenon is now making a 2025 comeback, but this time for a new cause. 

The Ice Bucket Challenge, also known as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, began in 2014 after Anthony Senerchia was diagnosed with ALS in 2003 and was curious about a cure. Eleven years later, his wife, Jeanette Senerchia, challenged her cousin, professional golfer Chris Kennedy, to pour an ice-cold bucket of water over his head in the name of ALS. From there on, the challenge took over their town and later took over the feeds of many social media platforms.

The challenge is simple: pour a bucket of ice water over your head and post it online and then nominate other people to do the same. Although the moment is fun, chilling, and great for an instantaneous laugh, the trend also had a serious message: to raise awareness and donations for ALS, which stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. There is currently no cure.

Over 17 million people completed the challenge, including a wide range of celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pratt, Bill Gates, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, and many more. The challenge opened the hearts, minds, and wallets of many. The ALS Foundation raised $160 million to support their mission and to invest in ALS research and care for people living with the disease. 

This time, the Ice Bucket Challenge is back for an entirely different cause, and that cause is to raise awareness for mental health and suicide prevention. The challenge gained buzz again in March of 2025 after students in the Mental Illness Needs Discussion club at the University of South Carolina posted on Instagram about the challenge.

People who would like to donate are encouraged to do so through the nonprofit organization, Active Minds. As of this writing, the challenge has raised over $245,000 for Active Minds. The 2025 version of the Ice Bucket Challenge is taking over TikTok, and many celebrities and influencers are catching on. So far, the challenge has been completed by James Charles, Haley Baylee, Peyton Manning, and Brooke Monk. 

The 2025 Ice Bucket Challenge is not only different because of the cause but also because of the platforms on which it is going viral. In 2014, the now-defunct app Vine featured many of these viral Ice Bucket Challenge videos. Today, we have TikTok, which did not exist in 2014; however, TikTok has a more modern landscape that allows for longer videos in comparison to Vine, livestreams, and cool edits. Outside of TikTok, Instagram has also become more modern, allowing for more information to be spread. You can now add links, donation stickers, put organizations in your bio, and much more.

Through the internet, using your voice to vocalize and speak up for change has become easier than ever. To get involved in the challenge, grab a bucket, some ice, cold water, and a digital device to record on. Simply record yourself dumping cold water on your head, post it to any social media platform, tag three people to continue the spread of the challenge, and use the hashtags #icebucket2025, #icebucketchallenge2025, and #uscicebucketchallenge.

Completing the challenge isn’t the only way to make an impact -- you can also include the donation link in your video or your bio or repost others completing the challenge. No matter how you choose to advocate, it will all be impactful towards raising awareness for mental health and suicide prevention!