The Reel Politics of International Crisis: Benedict Cumberbatch’s Appeal for Syrian Refugees
| Author | Michael Robert Artime,Megan Hershey |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221107270 |
| Published date | 01 May 2023 |
| Date | 01 May 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221107270
Political Studies Review
2023, Vol. 21(2) 357 –375
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299221107270
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The Reel Politics of
International Crisis:
Benedict Cumberbatch’s
Appeal for Syrian Refugees
Michael Robert Artime1
and Megan Hershey2
Abstract
How much can a celebrity’s involvement with a charity campaign change minds and shape political
opinion? We explore this issue in the context of an appeal by Benedict Cumberbatch regarding
the Syrian refugee crisis. We find that while the emotional, vivid images of the video did elicit a
statistically significant increase in students’ positive feelings toward Syrian refugees and efforts
to help them, surprisingly, Cumberbatch’s plea had no effect at all on these political views. Post-
experiment focus groups allowed us to further probe these findings, and we suggest that viewer
skepticism reduces celebrity influence, but that celebrity may be more effective as a “hook” in
grabbing viewers’ attention, than in actually swaying their views. We also find that participation
in a charity plea has the potential to benefit celebrities themselves by dramatically improving
viewers’ perceptions of them.
Keywords
celebrity, Syria, refugee, charity, activism
Accepted: 26 May 2022
Introduction
In the summer of 1985, the Irish musician Bob Geldof made celebrity politics history
by organizing the stunningly large, multi-site Live Aid benefit concert event featuring
iconic performers, such as Queen, the Four Tops, Madonna, and Paul McCartney. The
event raised millions of pounds for famine relief in Ethiopia, successfully marshaling
celebrity influence to raise awareness about, and funds for, a serious crisis. Scholars
recognized the event’s political significance immediately, exploring how the “hype”
inherent in popular music was “utilised to further advance the cause of famine relief”
1Department of Political Science, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA, USA
2Department of Political Science, Whitworth University, Spokane, WA, USA
Corresponding author:
Michael Robert Artime, Pacific Lutheran University, 12180 Park Avenue South, Tacoma, WA 98447, USA.
Email: artimemr@plu.edu
1107270PSW0010.1177/14789299221107270Political Studies ReviewArtime and Hershey
research-article2022
Article
358 Political Studies Review 21(2)
(Kenyon, 1985: 3). Though the event was controversial, particularly in hindsight,
Geldof ultimately succeeded in applying the draw of popular music to the task of inter-
national aid (Westley, 1991) and illustrating the potential power of celebrity influence
in driving politically related intentions and even behavior.
While Live Aid was a particularly dramatic example, celebrities have engaged in pub-
lic political activity—in large and small ways—for decades. Celebrity endorsement of
politicians, for example, has a century-long history in the United States. In more recent
times, it has been normal to see a politician like Hillary Clinton flanked by Bruce
Springsteen, Katie Perry, Lady Gaga, and the like. Yet, while we are generally willing to
accept that celebrities are good at selling commercial products (Gunter, 2014), there is
more skepticism regarding celebrity intervention in politics, whether as high-level fans of
political candidates or as spokespeople for humanitarian or controversial issues. Do
celebrities actually have the influence necessary to change attitudes or intentions about
important social and political issues?
This article utilizes an experimental design in an effort to highlight the unique impact
that celebrity influence can have on the success of an issue campaign. We seek to under-
stand whether celebrities can influence someone’s views or intentions with regard to a
highly politicized social problem. This experiment is unique in that it uses a real-life
advocacy campaign—a video highlighting the Syrian refugee crisis from the charitable
non-governmental organization (NGO) Save the Children, featuring the British actor
Benedict Cumberbatch—to isolate the effects of celebrity endorsement. Our project
builds on earlier experimental work that explored the role of celebrity in manufactured
laboratory settings (Harvey, 2017; Nownes, 2011). Our hypothesis is that, among a young
audience, the video featuring Benedict Cumberbatch advocating for Syrian refugees will
be more persuasive than the same video sans Cumberbatch. We argue that while both
videos increased concern for the Syrian refugee situation, Cumberbatch’s inclusion did
not have an effect on attitudes or behavior intentions, while it did boost participants’ opin-
ions of Cumberbatch himself. These results hold important implications for non-profit
organizations as well as government agencies that choose to use celebrity appeals to spark
citizen behavior in service of the goals of those organizations.
Literature Review
What Makes a Celebrity?
We live in an increasingly “media-drenched society” (Harvey, 2017) as the proliferation
of communications technologies now allow us to literally engage with celebrities. In the
United Kingdom, the advent of reality TV, social media, and a commercial news media
have given rise to “an instant celebrity culture” (Wheeler, 2013). In the United States,
scholars argue that celebrities are created by a “rationalized celebrity industry” (Meyer
and Gamson, 1995) or an “image-making industry that tries to make people famous”
(West and Orman 17). More outlets through which one can become a celebrity means that
fame is becoming democratized (Meyer and Gamson, 1995). Marshall (1997: 13) sug-
gests that this technological proliferation has created a “new public intimacy,” blurring
the lines between the public and private spheres, and giving rise to a culture in which
celebrities are seen as prominent actors (West and Orman, 2003), authentic (Meyer and
Gamson, 1995), possessing unique kinds of capital (Gunter, 2014), legitimate (Wheeler,
2013), and in “institutional positions of power” (Tsaliki et al., 2011). Ultimately, our
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