Celebrities in Public Diplomacy – the United Nations

The United Nations is the first major international organization that started experimenting with ‘Ambassadors’ that are basically internationally known celebrities to promote goals of the UN.
When talking about making a difference in this world, people with such aspirations oftentimes think to themselves: How can my voice be heard by millions? How can I truly make an impact on societies? Scholars would suggest to get a degree in International Relations and pursue a career in the public sector.
However, politicians are not trusted by the public anymore and their popularity slowly reaches an all-time low. There is a domestic political crisis in Europe and North America, people do not trust the establishment anymore, and Trumps, Farages, and Le Pens bring a new wave of ‘change’.
It may very well be easier for one’s voice to be heard by becoming a celebrity themselves nowadays… And many popular celebrities take the opportunity to talk about global issues. Most recently, Leonardo diCaprio gave a speech on global warming when receiving his long-deserved Oscar. He did not talk about the movie industry or about his personal goals. He grabbed the opportunity and talked about what he believed was important for everyone to hear (and obviously boosted his own image a little).

Let’s take a look at the framework used by the United Nations to see how effective their Goodwill Ambassadors are. Unfortunately, there is no chapter or reference on the programs Messenger of Peace or Goodwill Ambassador in the Oxford Handbook on the United Nations (2008), and the field is greatly under-examined by academics. The “celebrity diplomacy” concept has helped draw attention to the UN celebrity programs. But the promise of further theorizing beckons, such as how celebrity-type voices make representation claims and might be included in a broader public sphere context (in the Habermasian sense), or how charismatic individuals might contribute to evolving cosmopolitan norms regarding the nations states that make up the UN, as distinct from the UN itself and the higher purposes for which it stands, in promoting justice in world affairs (Wiseman, 2009).

Using celebrity diplomacy brings up some questions about its effectiveness. We want to know whether it is a clever use of what is called ‘soft power’. . . We also want to know whether we are investing our emotions, our time and our money in celebrity activities and whether this is a sound investment (Wiseman, 2009). Celebrities after all are not responsible for political agenda, they just express their opinions and thus affect public opinion. They can talk about global or domestic problems, but they are not responsible for acting on these problems. Furthermore, it is crucial to examine the reasons behind their actions. Are they doing this for themselves? Do they actually care about these problems? If not, then they obviously abuse their popularity and soft power. John Corner (2003) argues that the celebrities we see are public personas built on the individual’s success. Celebrities then abuse this ‘sympathy’ to affect public opinion, and scholars must examine whether this is used responsibly.

Some celebrities ended up doing great work for the UN and its agencies, namely Angelina Jolie and George Clooney, and many more. However, fiascos also happened. Infamously, Loren arrived at a UNHCR appointment ceremony for starving Somali refugees in a brown Rolls Royce and dressed in a matching fur coat (Wheeler, 2013). By the late 90s, UN operated with hundreds of celebrity diplomats, and the objectives of utilizing these ambassadors were not cohesive. In 2003, the Secretary-General issued the first ever ‘Guidelines for the designation of Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace’ to specify the functions, conditions of services and termination of contracts with celebrity diplomats (Wheeler, 2013). Being an ambassador is not the celebrities’ main focus, and sometimes their actions in their personal lives is damaging to the United Nations.

Using celebrities to campaign against global issues proves to be a viable way of diplomacy, as people find celebrities more credible and interesting than politicians and diplomats. Although the UN made some mistakes by increasing the number of its celebrity ambassadors before, they have also learned that celebrities such as Clooney may raise awareness of issues very effectively, and they are able to raise funds for charity with ease. Committed celebrities also raised new discourses and helped to change the international community.

 

Bibliography:

Corner, John. (2003) ‘Mediated persona and political culture’ in The media and the restyling of politics, 67–84. London, Thousand Oaks.

Wheeler, Mark. (2011) ‘Celebrity diplomacy: United Nations’ Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace’, Celebrity Studies, 2: 1, 6 — 18

Wiseman, Geoffrey. (2009) ‘The Public Diplomacy Role of Celebrity Diplomats’ in USC Center on Public Diplomacy. https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/research_project/the_public_diplomacy_role_of_celebrity_diplomats