HotmailThe Oprah effect: Can celebs sway voters?
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Most of the study’s participants claimed that they were either ambivalent to endorsements or, in some cases, turned off because of them.
“I don’t listen to the crazy ramblings of celebrities who try to use their status to brainwash people,” one participant commented.
“I think people should make up their own minds and know the facts for themselves,” Donna Arsenault, 48, of New Hampshire, told TODAYshow.com. “They shouldn’t look to celebrities for information on voting.”
But Arsenault, who says she is an Obama supporter, concedes that celebrities have brought more visibility to candidates and that even she didn’t know who Obama was prior to Winfrey’s endorsement.
“Politicians are like businesses — name recognition goes a long way, and celebrities can help make that happen,” Wood said. “Obama is a classic example of that because most people had never heard of him before.”
The Obama camp estimated that appearances with Winfrey led to 10,000 new volunteers working for the campaign, as well as larger audiences at rallies. The team cited a December 2007 rally in South Carolina that had to be moved to a football stadium when 29,000 people came to hear Winfrey and Obama speak.
Two economists from the University of Maryland, Craig Garthwaite and Timothy Moore, attempted to quantify the weight of Winfrey's endorsement on the Obama campaign. After analyzing sales of Oprah's Book Club selections and subscriptions to Winfrey's magazine O, the pair estimated she captured about 1 million additional votes for Obama in the primary election.
Almost a record number of eligible voters — 30.2 percent — cast their ballots in the primaries this year, a steep climb from the near record low turnout in the 2004 primaries, according to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, and some say this is due to celebrity involvement.
This late in the game, Jackson says, celebrities can do little but continue to encourage voter turnout — and how convincing they are is determined by who they are.
“A guy like Bono [the lead singer of the band U2] has a lot of influence — people see him as credible because of his level of political involvement,” Jackson explained. “On the other hand, no one cares what Paris Hilton has to say about anything other than fashion — no one is looking to her for her view on global warming.”
Bad company
Star power can be a blessing and a curse, as candidates are often held responsible for what their celebrity supporters say to the press.
“Businesses are very selective of celebrities they hire and the same is true of politicians,” Wood said. “You are the brand, and you are the company you keep, so you have to be very careful about who your friends are.”
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The McCain–Palin campaign, in turn, released a statement chastising Obama for the comments, saying, “It's not surprising that Barack Obama and his celebrity supporters continue to tear down Gov. Palin with little more than blatant name-calling.”
Obama has also been endorsed by many in the hip-hop community, including heavy hitters like Jay-Z, Nas, LL Cool J and Ludacris — and that has led to some controversy. Rapper Ludacris released a freestyle track, “Politics as Usual,” which shouts out Obama, but also dubs Hillary Clinton “irrelevent” and George W. Bush “mentally handicapped” in addition to taking swings at McCain. This prompted the Obama camp to get in damage-control mode, denouncing the “mysogyny, materialism, and degrading images” in rap lyrics, and adding that Ludacris “should be ashamed of these lyrics.”
McCain has several celebrity supporters, including Sylvester Stallone, Tom Selleck, Daddy Yankee and Stephen Baldwin — who made headlines when he challenged Obama to a boxing match and labeled the candidate a “cultural terrorist.” Obama, however, has many more stars in his corner and has been censured for his celebrity ties and painted as an elitist, particularly after attending an A-list Hollywood fundraiser headlined by Barbra Streisand in September.
The height of this criticism came in July. A McCain campaign ad that questioned whether Obama was ready to lead the country cut between images of the Illinois senator and tabloid princesses Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
“That isn’t anything new,” Ross said. “Politicians have been criticized for having celebrity backers and for whatever missteps the celebrities may make.”
Harriett Woods, who was running for the U.S. Senate in 1986, was harshly criticized for accepting money from Jane Fonda. “She was called ‘Hanoi Harriett,’ and many people believe that endorsement cost her the election,” Ross said.
In 2004, John Kerry was called out by Republicans for his ties to “dangerously liberal” Hollywood. “There were Photoshopped pictures floating around of Kerry with Jane Fonda, to show that he was extremely liberal and out of touch,” Ross added.
Kerry was also caught in a firestorm when actress and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg made sexually explicit puns about President Bush’s name at a Kerry fundraiser.
Positive or negative, the exact weight that a celebrity carries for an individual voter is difficult to ascertain, says Jackson.
“Many people may not even know how it affects their decisions,” he said. “But what I think celebrities represent is a mental shortcut for people, so they don’t have to spend a million hours researching a candidate if they generally agree with the celebrity. If that’s true for even one percent of the population — that can make a big difference in the election.”
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