Kanye: Trump’s mixed blessing
It was a game of two halves when it came to celebrity endorsements last week and it’s left me questioning: how far should celebrities dabble in politics? For politicians and political parties, the power of spontaneous celebrity endorsement can be pure promo gold because it’s genuine, free and can open up access to new and broader voter groups.
But after last week’s shenanigans, I’m wondering how much weight should we give celebs dabbling in political issues? And questioning where will it all stop.
Last week, thousands of young Americans registered to vote after pop star Taylor Swift urged people to vote and endorsed Democratic congressional candidates in Tennessee.
It’s great that Swift got people interested and motivated enough to register to vote. Every country is grappling with the dilemma of the lack of interest, particularly among younger people, in getting involved with the democratic process.
However, on the flip side, there was rapper Kanye West’s meeting with President Donald Trump.
This was followed by West’s statement that he’s seriously considering running for the 2024 presidential candidacy. He’s put it back by four years so he’s not running against Trump.
In the past I’ve given very little thought to West and, after his meeting with Trump, I’m going to keep it that way.
I’m sure that somewhere in one of the strangest, most self-aggrandising media stand-ups of all times, there were some good points being made. But hell, it was weird. It was like listening to a bloke in the pub who had had a few too many drinks and might be bonkers, or a genius.
Even Trump was left largely speechless and seemingly keen to get away from the cameras and get behind closed doors to a pre-arranged lunch.
The rise of the media and social media means celebrity endorsers are now political influencers well beyond anything we have ever seen before.
After all, Trump became a household name after appearing on The Apprentice from 2004 to 2017, and look where that piece of name recognition has landed everyone.
People always throw Ronald Reagan back at me when I say that. But Reagan did put in the political hard yards as governor of California from 1967 to 1975 before being elected as president.
So far in New Zealand the cult of celebrity backing for politicians is fairly low key.
At the last election we saw actress Robyn Malcolm, singer Anika Moa and a few others come out in favour of Labour and Xena star Lucy Lawless back the Greens. To be fair, the celebrity power of most New Zealand actors and entertainers isn’t quite up there with Kanye, Oprah or Taylor Swift. But I’m sure we’ll only see celebrity endorsement rise here as well.
So on the upside, as with Swift, if celebrity involvement gets more people engaged in thinking about politics, it’s got to be a good thing.
On the downside, celebrities aren’t politicians and it seems a high-risk game to put them in charge of world economies with no training, except a sense of their own self-importance, to equip them for such a role.
We could, of course, be done with the whole idea of politics as something that’s quite important and just put Pop Idol’s Simon Cowell in charge of running a political equivalent.
With contenders for the next US presidency already tipped to include media mogul and presenter Oprah Winfrey, actor Alec Baldwin and West, I feel as if the United States is already heading down that path. I might pitch the idea to a TV company before someone else gets there first.