Historical Role of Celebrities in Politics and Social Issues

In recent days, Celebrities are always part of the various political campaign and social issues, endorse political candidates in elections, and raise social issues in public. One of the great examples of such is US presidential election. However, this is not a new phenomenon in establishing a relationship with the public. Large numbers of historians detected the role of celebrities in politics and raising social issues to the public. Historians trace the role of celebrities in politics since 1920 when Warren Harding was endorsed by numbers of film stars including Lillian Russell. In the USA, it was usual, and in the 1960s, John F. Kennedy was endorsed by Rat Pack members, where Barack Obama was supported by L. Jackson. While, Clint Eastwood endorsed both John McCain in 2008 and Donald Trump in last USA presidential election (Marsh, Hart, and Tindall, 2010). Therefore, we can say that we see the trend in almost across the world to endorse the political candidates by celebrities. Actually, celebrities are known for frequently endorse products, political candidate, or health campaign, etc. Now in these days, it has been observed that the role of celebrities in the endorsement of political candidates and social issues has been tremendously increasing (Ch and Berger, 2010). However, some people denied the role of celebrities in endorsement to political parties or candidates. According to a famous actor, Mark Wahlberg “celebrities should keep their political opinions to themselves, and they live in a “bubble” and have no real understanding of the issues faced by others” (Blair, 2016). Therefore, we can say that different people have different opinions about the celebrities’ endorsement to the political candidates and social issues. However, raising social issues and endorse by celebrities are good for people if they suffer, such as poverty and racism. If endorsement helps to eliminate poverty and racism from society, then it will be good, but endorsement of a political candidate to gain votes in the election is not fair, rather it influenced people from their real choices.

In modern days, when technological advancement is the part of human life, people connected and follow their heroes/idols through social and digital media in mass, it will be possible that the celebrities can influence people towards a party candidate or other party in elections. We can say that politicians are nothing if they are not popularized by marketers, and there is no modern election season is complete without endorsement by celebrities by which they support one side or another. According to Anthony Nownes who is a political scientist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) “Celebrities are always getting involved in politics and no one over studies them.” Nownes argues that it is very essential to consider the role of celebrities in politics because it has the ability to influence the public opinion in elections, while some other politicians deny the importance and role of celebrities in the political matter (Becker, 2013). Nownes says that those celebrities who endorse any political candidate or political operations can influence people and their choice and can make more or less likeable a political leader, depending on what voters think about their first choice. Actually, celebrities are known for their bigger impact in the elections by serving “information shortcuts” of the candidates whom they support or promote to people or have formally endorsed. Taking advantage of their own public image celebrities perform among people to endorse people and argue people to vote that particular person whom they support. Although, today’s is the era of Twitter and Facebook through which celebrities voice their support and tweet about the political candidate they support to their millions of followers. American presidential election is one of the major examples of such incidents where numbers of celebrities support Barack Obama and Donald Trump (Veer, Becirovic, and  Martin, 2010). However, a few latest events have raised the question of whether superstars and their followers necessarily share the same political opinion or not. One of the great examples of such incident is an attack of Meryl Streep’s on current USA president Donald Trump and subsequent criticism by from Streep’s followers, such as Travis Tritt (Zubcevic-Basic, 2016). Another great example was when followers of Jenifer Holliday opposed her on their performance on the occasion of Trump’s induction party and due to the heavy opposition, she decided not to perform. The third example of such incidents was when Uber CEO quite President Trump’s economic advisory council because of heavy pressure from employees of their company Nam-Hyun, 2017). It shows that the political opinions of celebrities can differ from their followers.

Current Trend of Celebrities Endorsing Political Candidates and Social Issues

If we consider the concepts of Persuasion in PR, the first principle “the principle of liking” is followed by every leader or political candidate, where they win friends and through which they try to influence people. According to Cialdini, two actors play an important role in winning friends that are finding similarities and offering praise. Similarities bring them together and praise disarms them (McKernan, 2011). Celebrities use the same theory where they build the relationship by identifying similar interest objectives, experience, and opinions. Praise breaks down the barriers and shows interest and concern of another person. Generally, we like those people who tend to like us and we are all liable to an honest praise or commendation. They use media, blogs and twitter as a medium to build online communities. The problem with this type of medium, a little silly mistake can backfire and cause real damage to the image of that person who was endorsed by celebrities (Scott, 2015). Another principle of persuasion is Reciprocity where people do not tend to owe anyone. Reciprocity of Film actors and model builds goodwill and trust, which is essential in building a good relationship with people. This is the reason why every politician and or political party trying to utilize the image of celebrities from people and try to collect more favour from people in the elections. Scarcity is another principle of persuasion in PR. The scarcity concept states that if anything scare and people want it, then it is easier to influence people towards the particular person or social issues. Persuasive PR presents theses same concept in both written and oral form of communication to the public (Garthwaite and Moore, 2012). Actually, celebrities through public gathering and endorsee a political candidate, try to influence people and make favour about the person he/she support. It is human nature that people look and observe the behaviour of others and copies the act of others whom they follow. Here consensus is another major principle of PR that should be considered by the celebrities during endorsement of political candidates or talking about any social issue.

Ethics are the most essential part of persuasion. A celebrity should consider the ethical boundaries when he/she delivering the persuasive message in favour of any political leader or any social issues, because it influence many people those have very less or even no idea about the person or situation. However, people follow their role models or celebrities for their decision-making (Smith, 2013). Thus, a wrong message or selection of a wrong political candidate might cost heavier for the country and for people as well in politics. For example sometimes celebrity endorsed those person even the person is not capable for that particular post or designation. It means people blindly believe on their role models. Generally, these celebrities are paid for what they delivered to the public. Because they take huge amount of money they might also support a wrong people and that is totally unfair and unethical in politics because people does not know the reality and they blindly believe on their heroes or role models (Mishra and Mishra, 2014). Celebrities have a large platform and a huge number of followers and they can more influential. Therefore, for politicians, it is very easy to influence people through the help of their role models and their heroes. It has been considered that all human have same rights and obligation to speak about any social issues or any political matter that helps people to choose right people for the country. However, it should not be directed towards a negative trend where people choose a wrong person even they know that who is the right candidate for the same issue or event. People follow their idols blindly and never think about the wrong or right. That causes danger for the country and for the people themselves when they select a wrong person for the administration (Street, 2004). I think somewhat interfering in social issue is right for people because it focuses on the well-being of people and improves their lifestyle.

Impact of Celebrities on Public Opinion of Political Candidates

Pros: one of the great advantages of celebrity politics is to build credibility in public. People are connected and follow their favourite role models and heroes, thus they can easily motivated and influenced towards any social issue or political event. If they support a particular event, social issue, or a particular person, it shows that particular person is a good and eligible candidate and they easily build trust in their heroes and their endorsee leader (Partzsch, 2015). The celebrity would be at risk for damaging the reputation if they endorsed a wrong person in the politics or an unethical issue. 

Another advantage of this, that the nature and character of a person determine the character of another person who was endorsed by the celebrity. However, it is not true. Every person has his or her own character and nature. When celesbrity supports another person, they help politicians to create a good image among the public (Chou, 2014). Celebrity endorsement is capable of manifesting both favourable an unfavourable effect on both the political candidate and party with which they associate. If an Australian cricket player Brett Le or Steve Waugh support a political leader, then it is possible that people follow that leader blindly because their heroes support him/her.

Cons: One of the major problems is that a celebrity determines the politics by their own choice and people blindly follow them. Representation and dramatization is the main problem of the celebrity endorsement to a political candidate. This is either because the selected political representative deprives the connection between representatives and represented. It relegates concerns of political matter in favour of inappropriate gestures and superficial appearances (Morin, Ivory, and Tubbs, 2012). The second cons of interferences of a celebrity in a political or social issue that the majority of celebrity are well experienced in political rhetoric and knowledge, and they choose wrong decision while they selecting g a candidate for endorsement. Therefore, we can say that they are unqualified to choose proper strategic decision while they select their endorsee parties or leader. Sometimes it fires back when a bad image celebrity supports a good leader, then people rejected their appeal because of their own nature and character. Sometimes it happens adversely and celebrity overshadows politicians or the social issue that the real was (Flew and Swift, 2015). People focus on celebrity and not on the political candidate of a political party. Even when a celebrity supports multiple people at the same time, then it confuses people to select the real person and it also influences them.

Principles of Persuasion Used in Celebrity Endorsement

In the end, we can conclude that if a celebrity endorsee a right person then it will be good, but when the choice will be worst and failed to identify the nature of a person or his/her character, then endorsement purpose totally go in vain. Therefore, it is essential as well as the responsibility that to select the right people for endorsement, because it determines the future of the country. 

References

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