The soulless MDA “Show of Strength” two hour special is over in the East and Central time zones. On the website, MDA says it’s raised $42 million. But for the first time they concede that the total includes “contributions from our sponsor partners.” We won’t know until they file their 2014 Form 990 a year from now how much came in tonight. If it’s the same as recent years, the total from the public will be small.
I’ve reported that in the last few years, MDA has had a lot of trouble collecting money from pledges if it wasn’t taken on credit cards. And even that doesn’t amount to much. As for the show, it was a total bore. No host, nothing live, and many Power Point slide shows that were interminable. Everything that Jerry Lewis did to promote MDA awareness has been flushed down the toilet.
MDA also hooked themselves up to the ALS Water Bucket challenge (as if it weren’t hard enough to raise money for ALS research).
One thing I got out of the show, which has nothing to do with MDA: this guy Aloe Blacc could really be a big deal if he could find songs and settle on what he’s about. So far he’s had one hit with DJ Aviici, and one hit sampled from Elton John’s “Your Song.” He has a great voice, and really performs. He needs a great manager. And stay off the MDA Show of Strength.
