Should Celebrities Be Social Activists?

Everything comes with a price and there’s a huge price for being a celebrity. You make money from the fans but you are sold to them -no illuminati-. To be celebrated you need people to do the celebrating. So, you see, the fans own the celebrities.

Some fans could be ignorant of the hold they have on their celebrated stars and tend to worship the ground that these stars walk on, every word their stars say is word and truth. Everything they verify is legit, everything they do becomes the trend, everything they believe in becomes a cause, their competitors become enemies of the fans and the fans don’t hesitate to troll them, their fallouts with co-stars become a war that their fans will fight to the end of time even after the stars make up.

The celebrities on the other hand are quite aware of who truly calls the shot and stealthily play their cards well without revealing to the fans. They enjoy the perks of being relevant and known and most times do what is necessary to keep being in the spotlight. Some of the things they do to keep being relevant includes give-aways, sponsorships, influencing and amidst others, social activism.

Social activism is an intentional action aimed at highlighting societal issues and generating change. In this era of social media dominance, the most effective and obvious tool of social activism is the social media, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and the likes

Two tragic incidences hit the social media waves recently, one was the death of Grammy Nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle whose suspected killer has been identified as gang member Shitty Cuz.

The second was the death of Kolade a Nigerian killed by SARS officials during a SARS raid. His killers have been caught and would soon face trial.

An outburst occurred as some Nigerians lashed at Nigerian celebrities for paying more attention to the rapper’s death and less to the Nigerian killed because of the gullibility of SARS. Nigerians have reawakened the #ENDSARS movement and expect their celebrities to champion the cause. Now the question is should celebrities be social activists? Is it necessary?

Nobody should be anything except for who they are, right? Well, celebrities are barely people, they are brands! And for brands to keep the loyalty of their target market, their activities must align with the interest of the market. Simple! The more a consumer resonates with your brand, the more likely they are to buy from you again. Getting personal with your target market makes them feel appreciated and understood. Hence the reason celebrities take on social activism, to make their fans feel they care about their plights, whether they truly care or not is inconsequential, they are just expected to, so they play the role.

This expectation can be quite a lot; some celebrities do care and so social activism is quite effortless for them while some must apply more effort. The involvement of celebrities in social activism have both upsides and downsides.

On the upside, Celebrities involved with social activism help generate more publicity on the issue, they have a large platform of followers and fans on their social media pages, one hashtag by the right celebrity and a movement is born. Their influence over their fans cannot be underrated and word can be gotten out through them speedily.

 For instance, Tuface Idibia organised a protest in 2017 with the hashtag #OneVoice Nigeria, the movement garnered so much momentum that Tuface refused to call of the protest even after threats and pleas. He eventually yielded a day to the protest but some Nigerians carried on with it. Celebrities aside from their recognition amongst the people are also privileged to have some connections at the top, some have affiliations with governmental officials so they are an effective channel to get the voice and concerns of the people heard in the right places. Once a strong force drives the people and they are reawakened an opposition is inevitable. There are some Nigerian Celebrities that have been recognized as social activist for example, Late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Banky W, Tuface, Rugged Man and a host of others

On the downside, some of these celebrities don’t really resonate with the cause they are supposedly fighting for hence the fact that they are only doing it because they are expected to and depending on their beliefs if a deal comes to be the ambassador of a brand that opposes the cause they’re supposedly fighting for, they might just abandon the cause and move on to make money, therefore planting discouragement in the heart of their fans. As these celebrities are human beings there are different happenings in their lives and if gradually their focus shifts from the cause to a personal problem or their next project, the shift in energy will reflect on the fans and sooner the cause will be forgotten.

Should celebrities be social activists? Only if they want to, because unless the fire is genuine, it will burn out!

In your opinion, should celebrities be social activists? Let’s discuss in the comment section!