I read an interesting article in The Village Voice that spoke about the benefits and disadvantages of having celebrities (particularly rappers in this instance) supporting the presidential candidates. This article caught me by surprise a bit because I never really realized just how much influence these cultural icons have on impressionable citizens. Don’t get me wrong, I know they have a good deal of power, but enough power to make or break an election? Now that’s just ridiculous! The article mentioned that rappers in general tend to favor Obama in this years election and that they have been been producing endorsement tracks in his honor. These tracks however don’t merely endorse Obama but they also bash the other candidates in an effort to raise Obama above them. (I am not very technically savvy and cannot for the life of me figure out how to post a youtube video on here, so if you follow this link it will lead you to an Obama endorsement video by the rapper Ludacris.) The piece said that this is likely to do more harm to his campaign than good because this will just serve to piss people off, not to make them sway their votes in his favor.
In another related article from Fox News, Lindsay Lohan offered to help the Obama campaign by hosting/organizing events aimed at the younger voters in the U.S. She wished the spike their interest in the election and to persuade them to vote, for Obama in particular. Lohan’s offer was ultimately declined because her social image is currently tarnished to say the least. All in all I just find it really interesting that these cultural figures could have that large of an impact on the election. To say that the mere presence of just a small handful of these stars helping out in the campaign of one of the candidates could ultimately make or break their chances at becoming president is just ludicrous to me.
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