Who celebrity advocates are really targeting. And it's not you.
LONDON: Last week was a fanfare for celebrity humanitarians: Forest Whitaker appealed for peace in South Sudan alongside UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos; Angelina Jolie opened an academic centre on sexual violence in conflict with British Member of Parliament William Hague; and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham launched an initiative for children.
Photo: UNHCR/J. Tanner
In recent years, aid agencies have increasingly used celebrity advocates to raise awareness and money for their causes. There's just one snag:
It doesn't actually work. At least not as much or in the ways we think.
According to research by Dan Brockington, a professor at the University of Manchester, public responses to celebrity activism are surprisingly muted. His work is the first quantitative research on the subject.
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