This article is written by Matthew Tucker and is part of the Webjam Charity Channel
Celebrities: they can make us laugh, smile, cry and they can charge good money for the pleasure. The more we spend on our idols, the more they earn.
British broadcaster Jonathan Ross is the highest earning BBC presenter at £6million a year and Johnny Depp is reported to have been paid $55million to reprise his role as Jack Sparrow in the planned “Pirates of the Caribbean 4” film.
These are sums of money which many charities can only dream of. So with fame, money and power do celebrities have a moral duty to support charitable causes?
Many already have a portfolio of charity work on their CV. To name just a few, British comedians Matt Lucas and Jimmy Carr support the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt donated $8million to charity in 2006 alone. In fact, celebrity giving is enormous. The Look to the Stars website, a source of celebrity charity news and information, lists over 1,500 celebrities and the charities they support.
Some celebrities have even carved separate careers as charity campaigners: Bob Geldof and U2’s Bono have arguably become more famous for their charity events and concerts than their artistic careers. Geldof’s achievements are often viewed as a classic example of the power of celebrity endorsement in charity. His charity work gained international attention in 1984 when he galvanised the pop world to produce Band Aid’s ‘Do they know It’s Christmas’ in response to the Ethiopian famine. Becoming the fastest selling single of all time, the success was followed by the Live Aid and Live 8 concerts.
Some charity work can have a personal dimension for the celebrity. US talk show host Oprah Winfrey suffered childhood abuse and grew up in rural poverty, often wearing dresses made of potato sacks. After meeting Nelson Mandela, Winfrey pledged to help those from a disadvantaged background and invested $40million in the ‘Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls’ in South Africa. Similarly, music artist Tori Amos is the founder of The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), the largest anti-sexual assault organisation in the US. Having been a rape victim herself, Tori Amos’ charity and music has helped many women deal with rape since 1994.
But not all celebrity involvement is heaped with praise. Following a G8 Summit Bob Geldof declared that the Labour Government deserved “10 out of 10” on debt relief progress and “eight out of 10” on aid issues. However, a spokesman for the World Development Movement spoke out against Geldof’s comments: “The Make Poverty History Campaign was perhaps bravely naive and there were some good elements in that it raised public awareness [but] there are celebrities who really didn't seem to know what they were talking about and Bob Geldof's comments after the G8 were very unhelpful, because they made people think everything had been achieved.”
However, it is generally recognised that celebrities can and do make an enourmous difference to the success of charities. Perhaps the biggest donater to charity by a famous person is Bill Gates and his wife who have donated a reported $28billion to charity as of 2007.
On some issues, charity and politics often go hand-in-hand and a celebrity can reach an audience effectively, as shown with the appointment of Dame Joan Bakewall as champion of the elderly by the government. The writer and broadcaster has been a regular on television and radio since the 1960s and her new position will allow her to campaign for the elderly alongside other organisations.
Many British celebrities will be on television this Friday with the annual Children in Need appeal. Raising £37million last year, the campaign’s mix of informative documentary and entertainment is always a success.
But, without the celebrities can a charity raise anywhere near as much money? Are famous faces the only thing that will ‘sell’ a charity? How do smaller and less well known charitable causes compete with high profile fundraising tactics? Well, advantages can be taken of the effective and clear communications afforded by new media: websites, blogs and videos can reach a wider audience than previous traditional methods. Webjam provides all these resources to spread your message.
This article is part of the Webjam Charity Channel. Flickr image from Cristiano Betta's photostream.
