Nope, you didn’t just jump into a time machine back to 2014. That viral ice bucket challenge from a decade ago is slowly making a comeback and this time, it’s got a brand new mission of mental health awareness.
The videos all over your FYP right now have all the trademarks of the OG trend. They show people recording a video dunking themselves (or their friends) in a bucket of ice water, before nominating others to join the challenge in the next 24 hours. It’s practically dripping with 2010’s nostalgia.
Influencers like Haylee Khalil and James Charles have joined in with videos notching over 30 million views, and they’ve nominated others like MrBeast AKA Jimmy Donaldson, Brook Monk, Alex Warren and more. On TikTok, there’s literally hundreds of videos right now of people taking part.
And with these kinds of things, it feels like it could just be a matter of time before we could see some Aussie faces get on board. (Any guesses on which influencer will be first?)
Honestly, when I first saw the videos on my feed, I did a double take — is this basically the same trend, repackaged? Turns out, it’s a liiittle different.
In case you were blissfully offline back in the day, the OG ice bucket challenge was a whole moment in 2014, with everyone from Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates to Taylor Swift and LeBron James joining the trend to raise awareness and funds to fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease.
By the end of 2014, the ALS Association even managed to raise a whopping US $115 million (AUD $180 million) from the challenge.
This time, the 2025 ice bucket challenge — also being called the #SpeakYourMIND — is inspiring the same cold plunge, in support of mental health awareness. It kicked off in late March from students at the University of Carolina’s Mental Illness Needs Discussion Club, with a partnership with youth mental health not-for-profit Active Minds.
It has raised more than US $270,000 (AUD $422,000) as of Wednesday afternoon.
Why is the #SpeakYourMIND Challenge copping backlash?
While a lot of people are jumping on board the latest ice bucket trend, it’s also ruffling plenty of feathers.
The original 2014 trend was intended to spread the word about ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, gradually leading to loss of muscle control. And with ice water mimicking the sensation of numbness or loss of control, similar to how people with ALS might gradually lose the ability to move muscles, many people saw this challenge as particularly fitting.
With the 2025 trend, a number of ALS advocates have criticised the pivot. On Monday, ALS advocate Brooke Eby posted a video to her more than 200,000 followers on Instagram, stating she is “fuming” watching “people steal the ALS ice bucket challenge for a different cause when ALS still doesn’t have a cure”.
“The whole point of the ice bucket was that it simulated ALS for a second! Now they’re just doing it for no reason?” one user commented, while another admitted they thought the recent trend had started after Eric Dane‘s recent diagnosis.
In another TikTok video with over 760,000 views, one user stated it makes “absolutely no sense” the trend was used for a different cause.
In another video, another TikToker said she “couldn’t stand” how the challenge was being “reused”, despite its good cause.
“While I heavily encourage spreading [mental health] awareness, reusing this challenge feels like a poor decision because it was originally supposed to demonstrate how people with ALS felt,” she said, noting she had completed the challenge in 2014 after her uncle died from ALS.
A number of TikTok users remarked the challenge has been turned into light-hearted fun, with many users joking that they hope they aren’t nominated. “As someone who struggles with their mental health, this trend just feels like people taking mental health awareness as a joke and saying ‘it’s a fun trend’ or ‘no one better nominate me’ while dismissing the whole point of the challenge,” one user shared.
Meanwhile, the ALS Association has waded into the debate, urging participants to raise awareness for both mental health and ALS.
“Tell a friend to tell a friend…the Ice Bucket Challenge is back! Mental health impacts everyone, including people affected by ALS,” it said in an Instagram video on Tuesday.
It even commented under James Charles’ video, writing: “Proud Ice Bucket Challenge parent moment 🥹”
So, is it a reboot with purpose? Maybe so, while getting the word out about two important causes that are worth supporting.
It also comes with a solid heaping of nostalgia to scroll through some Vines and watch MTV, but maybe that’s just me.
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