celebrity endorsements of presidential candidates

I never understood why people would be influenced by who a celebrity endorses for president. Every four years we go through this and it's big news. Barbra Streisand is talented, but her endorsing Hillary Clinton doesn't matter to me. Chuck Norris is well liked and is endorsing Huckabee. Oprah is generous and gracious, and is endorsing Obama. I don't care who any of these celebrities are endorsing. It's up to me to decide.

I may like them, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with them on who they want for president. Maybe people don't want to research the issues themselves, so they rely on their favorite celebrity to make that decision for them.

It's kind of lazy if you ask me.

Does it influence you negatively? If you hate Oprah does that mean you won't vote for Obama? How about Hillary? If you hate Streisand, will you not vote for Hillary?

 

Italian the reason for that is that politicians know that most people can't think by themselves . Most people are followers and can't make decisions of voting alone. They use celebrities to manipulate people in favor of them . Some times celebrities know what really is going on , sometimes they don't . Well maybe the naive ones.:biggrin1::biggrin1::biggrin1:

 

Unfortunately most people are followers and not leaders, I'd never let a celebrity influence my vote.

 

My vote is for the candidate and what they profess to be their ideas and solutions for the betterment and future of The United States of America. I do not have any use for the self promoting comments issued by television, music, sports or movie stars. If my vote were to be based entirely on what they, (the overpaid media clutterers), have to say, then I'd be voting for Fred Thompson.

 

I'm not influenced by celebrity endorsements, either... I like Oprah, but I liked Obama before she opted to endorse him - her endorsement doesn't help "seal the deal" for me or anything.

 

Add to that the fact that most of these guys were not known nationally and what better way to get yourself known than to link up with a superstar for an endorsement. The down side is people are sheep and will blindly follow because a celeb they like endorses a candidate.

Amen brother. Decide for oneself, not because of Oprah, Chuck, or Babs.

 

Yes that's true . People must realize that celebrities aren't wiser and better than them because they got fame and money. Many celebrities are more ignorant than nonfamous people.

 

And you know this to be true... how?

 

You really think that celebrities are wiser and more intelligent than nonfamous people ? Some of the them could be but some of them aren't .
Some people that are famous aren't really talented, just dump people with luck or dump people with the right connections. The streets are full of talented actors , musicians etc that never get famous.

 

Well if Paris Hilton were backing a candidate, I'd say spot on, but do not discount Mr. Norris or Ms. Winfrey.

Remember Oprah's career started as a reporter in a Chicago newsroom and as such she was exposed to the political arena in many ways and has knowledge. Chuck is well known to be a candidate for the environment and as such he does his homework for fidning who has the environmental agenda with candidates.

 

Celebrity endorsements can also completely backfire.
Guiliani just got a celebrity endorsement from Pat Robertson. And even though I never considered Guiliani presidential material from the beginning, the idea that he's being backed by an overly religious & closed-minded conservative makes me shiver.

I'm sure other people may have seen this news and just got an icky feeling over themselves.

 

I suppose celebrity endorsements could be beneficial in a way. In theory, people who aren't normally interested in politics, but do follow the gossip pages, might find out about different political candidates (and their positions) through hearing their favourite celebrities talk about them.

That said, I'm not sure we want people who aren't normally interested in politics but follow the gossip pages, voting.

I find it instructive at times to see who the jesus-freak nutball evangelicals are endorsing, just to know which candidates aren't tolerant and forward-thinking. But nutball evangelicals are more politician than celebrity, for the most part.

 

My point was that intelligence and knowledge of a person is independent of the person status ( nonfamous or famous) . Many people assume that celebrities are better than them because their status.

 

You mean they aren't?

And all this time I thought Flavor Flav and Gary Coleman were better than I. :biggrin1:

Point taken HD, I should have known you were being more widesweeping in your scope. Sorry for misunderstanding.

 

Come on Osiris, Gary Coleman is better than anyone

Personally a celebrity endorsement puts me off, whether it's for a person or a product. In the case of products I know damn well all it means is that the celebrity has been paid to endorse that product.

 

Not problem , maybe I wasn't clear enough in my point.:smile::smile:

 

You've answered your own question. A great number of Americans are essentially lazy sheep who prefer to have the majority of their thinking done for them. They plod through life bucolically, concerned primarily with themselves and their consumerism...and in this information age, that largely means being entertained. So the most influential figures in their lives tend to be those that appear on their TV screens.

 

What you talkin' about SP? :biggrin1:

 

It's pathetic. Voting is a very important right that we as adults have.

Which is very honest. And I heard that a lot of Oprah's followers are angry at her for supporting him. They shouldn't be. It is her opinion, and she is not going to hold their hand when they go into the voting booth. Although, I'm sure some would love her to.

But if you already had a candidate in mind, I don't think you'd discount him or her because a pea brained heiress stepped on the endorsement bandwagon. :tongue:

So, in your case, a celebrity of sorts, Pat Robertson, may have soured you against Guiliani. That's what I mean about it possibly going either way.

If they're endorsing a product and paid for it, I don't think it's all that bad if I see results. For example, I saw a picture of Valerie Bertinelli with a 40lb weight loss and she looked really good. She is a pitch woman for Jenny Craig. If my favorite celeb said they like Coke and I drink Pepsi, I'm not going to switch.

Exactly. It's kind of scary. :yikes:

 

I never let endorsements influence me