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Celebrity activism (or celebrity advocacy) is a category of activism in which a celebrity participates in raising awareness and support for a particular social, political or environmental issue. A celebrity can be classified as an individual equated with mass attention and is commonly associated with successful careers in the entertainment industry (actors, musicians) and sports. Many celebrities often use their large followings as an advantage to communicate their solutions toward an issue, which typically involve strategies such as advertising campaigns, charitable foundations and social media.

The effectiveness of incorporating a celebrity in activist pursuits has been argued to be attributed to their "fame"; leveraging their large following to bring in extra media coverage, encourage participation and attract large audiences. The incorporation to raises awareness around an issue has also been notable for being effective by gaining the public interest, developing a sense of empathy around issues as they "humanize the problem and relate it in terms which readers will grasp". Aside from creating empathy, celebrities also have a very large presence in popular culture, as they occupy high status' in our cultural consciousness: "We read about their personal lives in the tabloids, watch them on a thousand different screens, and can't help but hang on every comment they make".

In contrast to its ability to be effective, celebrity activism has also sparked a lot of controversial arguments, specifically surrounding its credibility and authentic motivations. Critiques of this kind can be categorized as a form of slacktivism.

Environmental Activism
Activism for the environment involves raising awareness around issues surrounding the future and health of the environment in the hopes to make a change. It is also closely related to environmentalism, which is defined as "advocacy of the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment" wherein a social movement is involved. Celebrities that have participated in activism concerning the environment include Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and members of the band Pearl Jam.

Consumer activism
Consumer activism is a branch of activism in the form of a social movement wherein individuals seek to influence the way which goods and services are produced. The influence of the social movement is based around using society's drive for consumption with the interest of bettering the production process and the product quality for the consumers. According to author Louis Hyman, the most common forms of consumer activism is through a boycott which involves "shunning goods and services" produced and sold by companies, as well as a buycott which is the "encouragement of the consumption of particular goods". The act of consumption has been noted to be a political act which creates invokes implications. This can be seen demonstrated by people attempting to persuade us to "buy green" for the health of the environment.

A number of celebrities have participated in consumer activism, specifically through the boycotting of a specific product or company. In 2015, Donald Trump suggested boycotting Starbucks for their Christmas holiday cups which he explained had lacked Christmas characteristics. Similarly, movie stars Jesse Williams and Jamie Chung participated in a 2017 movement called "#deleteUBER", which was a protest against consuming the app after the CEO of the company had decided to drop their surge prices at the JFK airport. Uber had decided to drop their surge price after the New York Taxi Workers' Alliance had decided to boycott their services to show solidarity against Trump's executive order. The act of dropping the surge prices created a lot of controversies as people began to interpret this as support for the banning of Muslim's from America implemented by Donald Trump.

Social Media Activism
Social media activism is a branch of activism as a method in which social network websites provide an outlet for users to communicate their answers to a social issue. Social media as a tool for celebrities to promote their message is effective as they make use of their large following, giving users the ability “to make collective decisions, to exchange information and feelings, to develop a collective awareness”. Platforms that celebrities use to disseminate their perspectives on issues include Twitter, Facebook and Instagram through the use of sharing tweets, status updates and photographs.

Hashtag Activism
Hashtag Activism is a branch of internet activism in which users utilize the character "#" to organize keywords and phrases that users post. Platforms such as Twitter utilize hashtags as a way to support how one goes about searching for trending topics, categorize their messages and form communities. In this sense, hashtags remove ambiguity within each tweet as users are able to specify their message toward a specific audience. Celebrities utilize hashtags to address the issue they wish to raise awareness for, making conversation around the topic easier due to the way "Twitter flattens multiple audiences into one".

#MeToo Campaign
In October 2017, a number of news outlets such as The New York Times and The New Yorker published articles in which dozens of women made sexual allegations against American film producer Harvey Weinstein, dating back to about three decades ago. The sexual allegations ranged in various forms of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and rape. As a result of the large number of individuals admitting to these claims, American actress Alyssa Milano took action on Twitter by encouraging women who have also been victims of sexual assault and harassment to speak up by replying to the tweet saying "Me too". Milano's goal was to "give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem", which eventually lead the phrase to trend through the hashtag #Metoo shortly after with over 55,000 replies.

The widespread trend of the hashtag also led to a number of celebrities tweeting about it as well, speaking up on their own experiences. Among these celebrities were mostly women, which included but was not limited to Rosario Dawson, Lady Gaga and Gabrielle Union. In addition to these celebrities, actress America Ferrera published a post on Instagram revealing her past experience with sexual harassment and abuse at the age of nine, encouraging others to "break the silence".

Notable celebrity activists
Aside from their careers as athletes, actors and/or musician, many celebrities have participated in activism in a variety of ways.

Sean Penn
Sean Penn is an American actor who has appeared in a number of films including his two Academy Award-winning roles in the biopic Milk (2003) and Mystic River (2003) Penn's role as an activist has been visible throughout the span of his career of acting and he has immersed himself in supporting numerous political and social causes. In an interview with a British news outlet The Guardian, Penn explains that his involvement in activism is rooted in him being an "optimist" as he explains "I think we can turn things around. To do that, you got to get involved". Penn has also been especially regarded for being very physically involved with his acts of activism as he "immerses himself in project, and is on the ground manning rescue boats, sleeping in tens or hauling bags of donated foods".



2010 Haiti Earthquake
Following the events of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Sean Penn took the initiative to support in the immediate relief of the wreckage that the natural disaster caused. Working alongside a fellow activist Sanela Diana Jenkins, the two established the J/P Haitian Relief Organization, the J/P standing for "Jenkins-Penn" in response. The organization was able to fund for planeloads of doctors and physicians, as well as six tons of medical supplies which were brought over to Haiti in an effort to support those affected by the earthquake.

Criticism of President George Bush
In 2002, Sean Penn paid $56,000 USD to publish an article in The Washington Post addressing issues around the President of the United States during the time, George W. Bush. In the article, Penn criticizes Bush's desires for America to be involved in military assault on Iraq, as he states: "It concerns me that what you are asking of us is to abandon all previous lessons of history in favor of following you blindly into the future".

Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor who has appeared in films such as Titanic (1997), Catch Me If You Can (1992) and Inception (2010). DiCaprio has been considered an activist specifically around environmental issues and awareness as he established his own non-profit organization named the Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation. According to their mission statement, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is "dedicated to the long-term health of the Earth and all of living inhabitants" and look to do so through projects and partnerships to "restore balance to threatened ecosystems and communities". . The projects that the Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation fund revolve around six areas of focus which include "Wildlife and Landscapes", "Marine Life and Oceans", "Climate Change", "Innovative Solutions", "Environment Now California Program" and "Indigenous Rights". During the foundation's 20th Anniversary Celebration, DiCaprio announced that since its establishment in 1998, the foundation has funded over 200 projects and have amounted to over $100 million in total financial impact.



According to Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation website, the foundation expresses their concern around climate change to focus on tackling the crisis by promoting the transition into 100% renewable energy. . During his acceptance speech for the Best Actor award at the 88th Academy Awards for his role in The Revenant (2015), DiCaprio expressed his concern around the status of the environment:

"Making The Revenant was about man's relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this."

Bono


Bono is an Irish musician and the lead vocalist for the band U2. Apart from being a musician, Bono has immersed himself in a number of activist movements, specifically around raising awareness for issues around health through the establishment of his brand Product Red and its sister organization called the ONE.

Product Red
In 2006, Bono and activist/journalist Bobby Shriver established a brand called Product Red- styled as (PRODUCT)RED™ - which encompasses awareness for global issues around health. According to a statement listed on its website, Product Red "seeks to engage the private sector in raising awareness and funds to help eliminate HIV/AIDS in eight African countries. These countries include Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. The brand works with a number of world-wide iconic brands to produce (RED)-branded products, which are then donated to an international financing organization called The Global Fund.

Since 2006, Apple has collaborated with (RED) to create products in which a portion of each purchase is used toward "counseling, testing and medication to prevent mothers from passing HIV to their babies". To date, Apple has raised $160 million for The Global Fund. Apple has created products in collaboration with (RED) including red-coloured iPod's and iPhone's, a variety of device cases and headphones.

To date, (RED) has been able to generate over a total of $500 million, which has been donated to The Global Fund.

ONE Organization
The ONE Campaign is an advocacy organization which takes action on ending extreme poverty and preventable diseases in Africa. By creating justice and equality, the campaign works with over nine million participants who take action to help end the issue. Bono is regarded as one of many co-founders of ONE, as his company Product Red is one of many divisions that compose of ONE.

Emma Watson
Emma Watson is an English actress who has appeared in all film sequels in the Harry Potter film series, as well as a supporting role in Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). Outside of her acting career, Watson has been involved in a number of forms of activism surrounding the social issue of gender equality. In 2014, Watson spoke at a kick-start event for a campaign called HeForShe which was founded by an entity of the United Nations called the UN Women, in which Watson has been named one of the GoodWill Embassadors. . According to their mission statement, HeForShe is a campaign directed to all people, specifically male audiences, to bring a collective effort around empowering women toward creating gender equality in order to "build businesses, raise families, and give back to their communities".

Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress who has appeared in films such as Girl, Interrupted (1999) and Changeling (2008). Jolie has been recognized as humanitarian activist for her involvement in a variety of activist movements, using her celebrity influence to draw attention to the less-fortunate corners of the world. In 2001, she was appointed as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and since then has travelled to countries such as Iraq, Haiti, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. Jolie was given the 2005 Global Humanitarian Action Award for her work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. According to the president of the United Nations USA William Luers, he describes Jolie as standing apart from other celebrities involved in humanitarian work as she has "personally and publicly engaged in ways to better manage the problems surrounding this noble cause". In 2008, Jolie and her husband at the time, Brad Pitt, donated $2 million dollars to help fight HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in Ethiopia by building a center in the capital city for children affected by the disease. They named the center after their adopted Ethiopian daughter, Zahara, with the hope that she will one day take responsibility for the clinic in the future.

Controversies
Celebrity activism has been subject to a number of skeptical claims, specifically around doubt surrounding its credibility and questions of authentic motivation. In terms of a celebrity's credibility, on the one hand of the argument it has been observed that when celebrities endorse a product, they are able to generate recognition and create a sense of familiarity/trust which equates to sales. Thus, the same model of celebrity endorsement must be effective toward raising awareness around social issues. On the other hand, celebrities are often critiqued on their ability to make an actual impact, especially with political activism in terms of influencing a political outcome. In the case of film stars, these individuals must "construct their personal image in a way that is conducive to a successful career" and are therefore criticized when involved in political causes as "exploiting their high public profile to promote themselves" and being unauthentic with their activist demonstrations.

Arguments around the credibility of celebrity activism have sparked a number of conversations around a celebrity's motivation for campaigns and whether or not their intentions are to keep the celebrity in the spotlight. Arguments have been made around a celebrity's motivations as a "transactional relationship", wherein a celebrity is paid in cash by a company for obtaining exposure through sponsored tweets on Twitter. According to research results conducted by three professors Spensor Henson, Dr Martin Scott, and Dan Brockington, it was noted that out of 1,000 people who were surveyed about celebrities and campaigning, 66% of those surveyed were not able to link a single celebrity with a list of seven well-known charities and organizations", which suggests that a celebrity is not enough to sell an idea.

Slacktivism
The critiques commonly made on celebrity activism regarding its authenticity and credibility (or lack thereof) aligns similarly to a branch of activism called slacktivism. Slacktivism is defined as "an action performed via the internet in support of a cause or issue that requires little time or involvement". Celebrities who participate in activist movements are accused of slacktivism due to being less effective at "transforming [pledges] into appropriate, tangible policies".

In 2014, an online activist movement called the ALS Ice Bucket challenge began to trend on the internet, which looked to raise awareness around a disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The fatal disease has been known to decrease muscle control by destroying motor neurons, which includes the loss of ability to eat, speak and breathe. The nature of the challenge involved nominating a person to choose between donating $100 toward fighting the disease or dumping a bucket of ice water over their head and donate only $10. Celebrities that have participated in the challenge include Lady Gaga, Oprah, Justin Bieber, Mark Zuckerberg and LeBron James.

The challenge has been accused of being an act of slacktivism due to the loss of the "call-to-action", as the campaign had become more about dumping buckets of ice for fun and less focus around the issue itself. On the other side of the argument, a lot of evidence has been made for the value of the challenge, as a reported $222 million dollars was raised for ALS donation organizations in just eight weeks, as well as raised awareness to people who were not aware of the disease altogether.