Phil Schiller, Apple's head marketing dude, joined in the ALS Association's Ice Bucket Challenge. The Ice Bucket Challenge has turned into a viral phenom as celebrities, groups, and just ordinary folks have taken to dousing themselves with buckets of ice water, making a donation to the ALS fund, and then challenging others to participate.

Phil had a set of images taken as he poured a bucket of ice water over his head while standing on the beach.

By the way, the beach looks like it may be just south of San Gregorio State Beach in California (update: a little birdie whispered in my ear that the beach was at Half Moon Bay). You may notice that Phil is wearing a Boston College t-shirt, which happens to be his alma mater.

Phil issued challenges to his wife Kim, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Chris O'Donnell, star of "NCIS Los Angeles" and a fellow Boston College alumni, to join him in the Ice Bucket Challenge. According to the rules of the challenge, Kim, Tim, and Chris have 24 hours to respond by dousing themselves with ice water, donating to the ALS fund, and then continuing the tradition of challenging others to participate.

I'd love to see a large group of Apple employees outside the company's headquarters in Cupertino being doused with ice water, and Apple matching their donations. As a company, Apple could then issue a challenge to some of the other top tech corporations in the valley.

Since the Ice Bucket Challenge started in late July, the ALS Association has seen $4 million in contributions to its funds; that's a big boost over what the organization would normally take in during that time period.

ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. While Lou Gehrig wasn't the first person to be diagnosed with ALS, he was the first public face of the debilitating disease.

You can learn more about ALS from About's Neurology expert, Dr. Peter Pressman, as well as by visiting the ALS Association's web site.