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Move Over Kim Here Comes The Donald

Move Over Kim Here Comes The Donald

By Caleb Baue
       
The American media’s new favorite celebrity power couple isn’t quite what we all expected. The all-star line up including Thomas Rhett and Lauren Atkins, Will and Jada Smith, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, are now joined by Kanye West and Donald Trump. Celebrity endorsement gained its popularity back in 2004 when Red Sox Pitcher Curt Schilling publicly endorsed former President George W. Bush. Since then, we’ve seen pairs like Michael J. Fox and current senator Claire McCaskill in 2006, Hank Williams Jr. and the late John McCain in 2008 and Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama in 2008. (Ivory, Morin, Tubbs, 2012) Celebrity endorsement is most commonly used for product advertisement, companies have been using athletes, singers, actors, and public figures in advertisements for years. The goal or idea behind these endorsements is that they will positively change the audience’s perception of the product and the company while simultaneously influencing the audience to buy the product (Ivory et al., 2012). Perceptions and opinions surrounding politicians can be formulated in the same way. Does this person do the job they’re supposed to? Does the person have opinions and stances that meet mine? The products being advertised can’t talk or walk so the products need a celebrity to tell us how great they are, we also can’t form our own judgement due to lack of personal interaction with Trump so we are stuck relying on our consumption of media regarding Trump and what other people tell us about their personal encounters with him to develop our perception of him. So why not make one of those sources of praise a widely known, widely loved, individual with their own large powerful following AKA a celebrity.



This new celebrity couple, however bizarre it may seem, makes a lot of political sense on Trump's side. Donald Trump has been tagged by many as racist and as a white supremacist so it could play benefit to Donald Trump to have Kanye:,a celebrity of a minority race as part of his endorsement circle. The important question is if this endorsement is working properly in Trump’s favor? If Kanye is a successful endorser for Trump, then he should be positively affecting the perception of Trump.
At the NRA annual conference this year, Trump thanked Kanye for his support and gave him credit for the rise in his approval rating from the African American demographic. Trump was quoted saying, “Kanye West must have some power because you probably have saw I doubled my African American poll numbers. It went from 11 to 22 in one week, thank you Kanye”.  A fact check article written by Christal Hayes of USA Today shortly followed up on this speech to check the accuracy of this comment. Hayes found Trump’s statement to be true. There was in fact an increase from 11% to 22% during the week of April 22, 2018 among black men. As for the black community, Trump’s overall approval rating increased from 8.9% to 16.5%. Coincidentally that same week, on April 25, Kanye posted his series of tweets in support of Trump (Hayes, 2018). There is no evidence that Kanye is the sole reason or influence in this rise of approval from African American citizens, but Trump having Kanye in his endorsement circle definitely hasn’t hurt him in poll numbers.. The only option to do at this point is to watch the numbers as this relationship develops further, as we wait to see if the “Yeezy” effect can work its Magic on the President of the United States.

References

Hayes C. (2018, May 4) Fact check: did Kanye west help Trump double his approval rating among blacks? USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/05/04/trump-says-kanye-helped-double-approval-ratings-among-blacks-fact-check/581913002/

Ivory J, Morin D, Tubbs M. (2012) Celebrity and Politics: Effects of Endorser Credibility and Sex on Voter Attitudes, Perceptions, and Behaviors. The Social Science Journal 49, 413-420

Word Count: 603
Keywords: celebrity, politician, Donald Trump, Kanye West, celebrity endorsement, approval rating

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Comments

  1. KHNovember 13, 2018 at 9:04 AM

    Biscuit,

    Overall this is a fine post. Your lively discussion of Kanye & Donald's bromance hits the mark on several counts.

    First, this is a timely and relevant topic given our interests in media, popular culture, and identity. Second, you've made effective use of academic and non-academic sources to inform your discussion. Third, your political analysis is sound, but limited in scope. Finally, you have a winning writing style: clear, concise and sometimes quite clever.

    Why then undermine your work with rampant errors of formatting, citation style, and punctuation?

    Your classmates may be a bit forgiving on this score. But prospective employers and others who read your work may not be quite so understanding. I implore you (and your crew) to do a better job proof reading your work.

    26 pts.

    ReplyDelete

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