A win-win relationship - Celebrities and charities

Cecilia Badano

An article from Ruta Butkute published last month (“PR-isation of humanitarianism: Why PR ethics are even more important in the non-profit sector”) discussed the ethics regarding the use of PR strategies in the humanitarian sector. In particular, my colleague, in line with the study by Susan Hopkins (2018), criticizes the use of celebrity endorsement for humanitarian causes.

Without doubt, this article provides interesting suggestions and insights on the role of PR in activism but I believe this view to be limited by its critical perspective. As a response, I would like to give an overview of why I consider celebrity endorsement beneficial for charitable organizations and potentially in line with their ethical standards.

PR is here for everyone’s dreams

The first important thing to understand is that nowadays all types of organization use PR as a form of strategic communication to reach their goals (Toledano,2018). Unfortunately, this idea of PR comes with ethical concerns since this practice may be used as a manipulative tool for selfish scopes.

©Serena Bonneville

As Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, said during a recent conference at the University of Amsterdam:

“Ethics is like a diet, tough and always there to think about”.

Ethics is a tricky way to go but I do believe that, when determining whether a PR strategy is ethical or not, its ultimate goals and its level of transparency and respect are important factors to take into account.

Ruta, in her article, asks for more ethical PR because “the use of PR to make already powerful people appear more powerful in the humanitarian sector should not be the aim”.

Is it the actual goal though?

I am sure that some celebrities accept to get involved to increase their acceptance among the public but I do not think it to be the general case. 
And even if celebrities get more “likes”, who cares? 
At the end of the day, what really matters is the goal of humanitarian organizations who work to pursue their specific missions, such as providing education, defending human rights, protecting the environment and so on. 

Having the actual aim in mind, celebrity endorsement helps charities to achieve the following:

A stronger social capital...

I know sociology is not everyone’s cup of tea but let’s try to see PR through the eyes of Bourdieu for a moment because his idea of our society as shaped by continuous “struggles over power” has significant implications for this practice. In fact, nowadays, PR allows those organizations (as the NPOs) that have limited economic capital to improve their position in society by implementing their social one (Wolf, 2018).

In human words, networking to build valuable relations is central for activist groups to gain legitimacy and trust among the public. By having the support of celebrities, humanitarian organizations can reach a wider public, for example through their social media channels (UN Women Goodwill ambassador Nicole Kidman has 5.4 million followers on Instagram!), including a wide number of valuable connections, such as journalists, politicians and researchers.

 

Screenshot from Instagram

…Evolving in donations

This increased social capital is already good per se but can also indirectly increase the economic one, attracting donations and sponsorships that are fundamental for those organizations that do not receive public funds or have commercial incomes. In fact, according to many studies, when celebrities are involved in a project (mission, advertisement, event) not only the public become more aware of the organization behind it but it is also more incline to making purchases (or donations in this case). As Ruta also suggests, these funds could be used to implement the organizations’ activities, including additional PR strategies to “give a voice” to the people being helped.

… and media attention

© Veley Bradford

Leaving Bourdieu behind, the use of celebrities also allows humanitarian organizations to get their causes and activities covered by national and international news media. According to the “news factor theory”, PR messages, in order to attract attention, should always contain some elements and characteristics considered “newsworthy” by the press. Together with many others, the involvement of celebrities is one well-know “news factor”. For this reason, NPOs involving famous people in their conferences or humanitarian missions, are more likely to see their causes covered by news media and consequently to get into the public agenda.

All in all

As we have seen, several studies support the use of celebrity endorsement as a PR strategy because it results to be very efficient in terms of both reputational and commercial returns.

So, 

•         “Do it for the gram”
•          Do it for the money
•          Do it for the attention

But please, do your PR responsibly!

About the author

Cecilia Badano is an Italian student, currently approaching the end of the MSc in Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam. After her bachelor in Milan, she decided to leave “la bella Italia” to start her new life in The Netherlands. Her interest in Media Relations and PR in general led her to undertake courses from both the Corporate Communication and Political Communication tracks in order to have a wider perspective on these topics.