Celebrity advocacy was a contentious topic during this evenings
class, especially within the context of contradicting arguments from Emily
and Hannah
on the issue. Piqued by the prospects of an emotional showdown between Emily, Heribert
Dieter, and Rajiv Kumar, I’ve decided to wade into the discussion.
Celebrity advocacy in the global public sphere of international relations has both positive and negative results. In advocacy success stories, the celebrity is highly committed to the cause and takes the time to understand the complexity of global issues.
Positive Results
Landmines
Princess Diana is one of the most well-known examples of
celebrity advocacy in the global sphere, championing a global moratorium on
landmines and treatment for AIDS victims.
While many might assume her predominant role was to raise
public awareness on these issues, Dan Brockington argues that “much of the work
was done behind the scenes with elites... it was her influence on many
diplomats who were doing the actual negotiation that was vital.”[1],[2]
Other positive examples:[3]
Darfur
Mia Farrow and Steven Spielberg successfully pressured China
to use its influence to put a UN peace keeping force in Darfur. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/washington/13diplo.html
Africa and Aids
Bono has been a staunch advocate for improving policies to
empower Africa. The policies he has advocated for paid dividends: (According to
his TED speaker profile) “eight million people are now on life preserving
antiretoviral medications, malarial death rates have been halved in eight
target countries, 50 million more children are in school and 5.4 million lives
have been saved through vaccines.” https://www.ted.com/speakers/bono
Refugees
Angelina Jolie and refugees. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2927947/Angelina-Jolie-visits-Iraq-highlight-dire-needs-refugees.html
Negative Results
There are also numerous negative examples of how celebrity
activism has harmed causes or perpetuated negative situations.
Hanoi Jane
Move star Jane Fonda opposed the Vietnam War, and went as
far as visiting Hanoi, Vietnam, accusing the U.S. of humanitarian crimes and posing
with Vietnamese forces. She told 60
minutes on March 31, 2005 that “"The image of Jane Fonda, Barbarella,
Henry Fonda's daughter ... sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal ...
the largest lapse of judgment that I can even imagine."[4]
Jenny McCarthy
The former playboy playmate turned TV host came out as a
staunch opponent of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and other
vaccines after her son contracted autism. Despite overwhelmingly scientific
evidence demonstrating that the MMR vaccine did not cause measles, McCarthy
told Time Magazine in 2010 that “that’s a lie and we’re sick of it,” along with
a lot of other insightful
and scientific arguments.[5] Her
actions have detrimentally impacted global health by discouraging the incidence
of vaccination, especially among the affluent and stupid.
Dennis Rodman and
North Korea
No explanation necessary.
And now to appease my sociopathic urge to mock hashtags:
#Kony2012
Kony2012 was an early example of viral social movements, and
demonstrated how social movements with unprecedented momentum and public
opinion often miss the mark: both in terms of educating the public and
translating into meaningful achievements. Dr. Beatrice Mpora, director of
community health organization Kairos, which dealt with the aftermath of the
conflict in Uganda, lamented that “what that video says is totally wrong, and
it can cause us more problems than help us.”[6]
All this despite star power from Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian,
and Diddy.
#BringBackOurGirls
Michelle Obama was conscientious enough to champion the
cause of 276 Nigerian girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram from boarding
school in April 2014, launching the twitter hashtag pictured above. Al Jazeera noted that despite trending
on twitter, “the mass abduction that drew global shock, condemnation, and media
attention has since been largely forgotten,” leaving the families feeling
abandoned.[7]
Criticisms and
Conclusions on Celebrity Advocacy
One of the most common criticisms of celebrity advocacy is
that it actually decreases public engagement. Examples of this paradox include
Kony2012 and Bring Back Our Girls movements, where numerous people jumped on a
viral social cause without bothering to understand the situation. After
studying the issue, Brockington explains that:
“Celebrity advocacy, which is now
so well organized by NGOs, marks, ironically, a disengagement between the
public and politics, and particularly between the public and the civil society
organizations that try to represent development and humanitarian needs.”
A second significant criticism is that celebrity criticism
is just advocacy by elites, for elites. Dan Brockington argues that “celebrity
advocacy works with elites, despite its lack of resonance with much of the public,
because elites believe it to.”[8]
The caption for the photo above was “U2 frontman Bono walks
with President Bush in March after rallying support for relieving Third World
debt.”[9] Bono
went on to state that “George kind of knocked it out of the park” with his
PEPFAR AIDS initiative and other foreign aid to the struggling continent.[10]
Despite these issues, there is little doubt that many
celebrities can use their clout to impact the world for good- especially when
they are committed to a cause and take the time to understand the complexity of
global issues.
[1] Brockington, Dan. Celebrity advocacy and international
development. Routledge, 2014., p. 8[2] Ibid., 9
[3] Thrall, A. Trevor, Jaime Lollio-Fakhreddine, Jon Berent,
Lana Donnelly, Wes Herrin, Zachary Paquette, Rebecca Wenglinski, and Amy Wyatt.
"Star power: Celebrity advocacy and the evolution of the public
sphere." The international journal of press/politics 13, no. 4 (2008):
362-385. p. 363
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Fonda#Opposition_to_Vietnam_War
[5] Karl Taro Greenfeld, “The Autism Debate: Who's Afraid of
Jenny McCarthy?” Time, 25 February 2010
[6] Mike Pflanz, “Joseph Kony 2012: growing outrage in
Uganda over film,” The Telegraph, 08 Mar 2012
[7] Ashionye Ogene, “Abandonment of 'Bring Back Our Girls'”
Al Jazeera, 14 October 2014
[8] Brockington, Dan. Celebrity advocacy and international
development. Routledge, 2014., 8
[9] http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/12/06/tem_bono06.html
[10]
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/04/george-w-bushs-legacy-on-africa-wins-praise-even-from-foes/
Ben, this is awesome! Looking at specific examples really helps us understand how the efficacy of celebrity advocacy varies from case to case. I agree with the critics for the most part, but I also understand that the potential drawbacks might seem less cumbersome to an NGO that has tried everything else to increase the public visibility of their cause. I think you'll find my memo rather interesting (Module 6, I am to email my memo to you for comments). Thanks Ben! :)
ReplyDeleteI think these are all great examples. The Jenny McCarthy one I could barely read because it is so infuriating. I was just at the doctor the other day and I was told that I needed to have blood work done because many adults can "lose" their immunity to MMR after their vaccinations are several decades old. This has never been a problem in the past because of herd immunity, but now with so many children carrying these diseases, adults who think they are immunized might actually be at risk. The fact that because this baseless, dangerous, and irrational campaign had a face that drew so much attention was clearly a problem. As much as we might sometimes hate to admit it, these celebrity campaigns are effective because they are a spectacle. Although, if you are taking medical advice for your child from Jenny McCarthy instead of just about every single doctor, then I don't know that anything could have helped.
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