This week on Full Frame: The power of going viral

Full Frame

Mike Walter and Nancy FratesNancy Frates talks about helping start the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to bring awareness to her son’s disease.

If you’re on social media, you’ve likely come across some kind of viral content.

These days the term “going viral” has become the new definition of pop culture success. And while most people think of viral videos, anything can go viral on the Internet.

But what happens after you go viral? How can you harness that power for the greater good?

Nancy Frates – A challenge becomes a worldwide phenomenon

Nancy Frates

Nancy Frates talks about helping start the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to bring awareness to her son’s disease.

When lifelong athlete Pete Frates’ wrist never recovered from an injury, the diagnosis wasn’t fracture or even nerve damage, it was ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The night of his diagnosis, the then 27-year-old gathered his family and made his mission crystal clear: activism was his new calling.

His goal: to raise awareness for ALS around the globe, and to bring the disease to the attention of the world’s biggest philanthropists. His family and friends, known as “Team Frate Train”, took to the road, speaking at conferences, events, on television, and any outlet available to them to help spread awareness.

In the summer of 2014, their message went online. That’s when the Ice Bucket Challenge took social media by storm, helping to raise millions of dollars for ALS—more than $140 million, to be exact. And donations poured in from all across the globe.

Nancy Frates is Pete’s mother. The career woman turned ALS activist, who with the help of her family, championed an amazing social movement inspired by her son’s diagnosis and his desire to make a difference.

Nancy joins Mike Walter in our New York studio to share her family’s story about going viral.

Vincent Touboul Flachaire – Turning 20 seconds into charity

Vincent Touboul Flachaire

Founder and CEO of Goodeed.com talks about his charity fundraising website.


Virtually all of us dream of making the world a better place. Your dream can become a reality with just the click of a mouse.

At just 19 years old, Vincent Touboul Flachaire is the founder and CEO of Goodeed.com. Unlike other charity fundraising websites, Goodeed doesn’t require users to spend any money—just time. The site allows users to watch a 20-second ad and then choose a cause to which the sponsors of the ad will make a donation. Revenue from advertisers is donated toward organizations like UNICEF, WeForest and the World Food Program.

Vincent joins Mike Walter via satellite from Paris to talk about this unique and easy way to make a donation and a difference.

Matt Stopera: Stolen iPhone and a global odyssey

Matt Stopera

BuzzFeed editor Matt Stopera shares his viral story of his stolen iPhone.


A stolen iPhone played a pivotal role in a cross-cultural experience of a lifetime.

One year after writer Matt Stopera had his phone stolen from a New York City bar, mysterious photos of a man, in front of an orange tree, began appearing on his shared photo stream. Stopera is an editor of BuzzFeed – a New York-based social news and entertainment company. So, naturally he wrote a story about the mystery man and the orange tree for the BuzzFeed website. Almost instantly, the story went viral. It quickly gained traction on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter.Users in China took action and decided they would help Matt track down the mystery man.

Matt Stopera joins Mike Walter in our New York studio to tell us what happened next. And, from Los Angeles is Deputy Editorial Director at BuzzFeed Abe Forman-Greenwald, a BuzzFeed video producer, discusses the soon-to-be-released documentary that chronicles their journey.

Paparazzi Proposals: Memories for a lifetime

Paparazzi Proposals

Paparazzi Proposals is putting a new spin on the marriage proposal.

Some may look at them as a nuisance.

But the paparazzi play an essential role in documenting history and capturing some of the world’s most enduring images in a single moment in time.

And often the pictures they generate go viral.

One of those memorable life moments is a marriage proposal. Now, Paparazzi Proposals is putting a new spin on that magical occasion. Inspired by its founder’s real life experience as a paparazzi photographer, he uses stealth photography to document the raw emotion of a memorable engagement.

The goal is to always be at the right place, at the right time. Once there, they secretly capture unique proposals. And, with a good deal of strategic planning and a dose of creativity, they’re helping memories live on for a lifetime.

Connect with Paparazzi Proposals on Facebook