The Power of the Celebrity
By Elle Gennis
Celebrities are generally considered to be one of the best ways to promote anything. From perfumes to shoes to music, if a celebrity shows that they love or feel passionate about something, their fans and followers will quickly want to do or buy whatever their celebrity idol is advertising. The thing about celebrity endorsements and advertisements, though, is that celebrities do a great job of making whatever picture or video they choose to post seem so genuine and legitimate that fans are often oblivious to the fact that the celebrity is purposefully advertising something.
You may be asking yourself: Elle, how does this have anything to do with voting? Well, I am getting to that part. In a recent NPR article, entitled Will 2020 Be The Year Of The Young Voter?, the author writes about several new techniques that people are using to try and get out the vote and, specifically, encourage young people to go to the polls. Former First Lady, Michelle Obama, started a nonpartisan nonprofit in 2018 called We All Vote. The organization is one group that works to bridge the gap between young voters who do not vote, and old voters who do. Recently, We All Vote has implemented a new strategy to try to encourage young people to vote which involves reaching out to online influencers and celebrities to ask them to use their undoubtedly influential platforms for good. Stephanie Young, the organization’s chief communications, culture and media partnership officer, said in an interview that influencers and celebrities “literally could be the only person that talks about voting in someone’s life.” Young continues, “Yes, do your makeup tutorials. Yes, critique the latest reality show. Do all of the stuff that you do every day on your social media, but take time to talk about voting.”
Given the undeniable breadth and influence of today’s online celebrities, if all celebrities started to post on their social media platforms about voting — registering to vote, making a plan, educating about the election — more and more people, especially young people, might start to feel like voting is the ‘cool’ and the right thing to do. Already, celebrities like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ayesha and Steph Curry, Kerry Washington, Reese Witherspoon and John Mayer are starting to use their platforms to encourage people to register to vote. Imagine how much positive change could be made if every celebrity or social media influencer did the same!
