INFLUENCERS MEET POLITICS

Celebrities they’re just like us, only cringier

YASMINE ELSAYED (SHE/HER) Contributor

SHARLEEN RAMOS (SHE/HER) Illustrator

Some brands and celebrities think that they are spotlighting when they aren't. There is nothing wrong with brands or celebrities being quiet about certain political situations. Personally, I would rather them be quiet and genuinely support behind the scenes, rather than taking to social media with insensitive BS. So, before posting a picture, a story, or a tweet, they should stop and ask, would it be a good idea to post this?

Celebrities have an influential voice, and if it is not used right, it can lead to massive backlash. For example, during the 2017 Black Lives Matter protests, Pepsi decided to create an ad that trivialized the extremity of the situation by featuring Kendall Jenner handing a can of Pepsi to a police officer. Now, Pepsi should have approached this situation better — they could have created a different ad that did not touch the subject, voiced their support for the protests by sending a tweet as every other brand does and donated funds to the movement they were supposedly in support of.

People need to recognize that simplifying a severe situation by creating trends or making unnecessary ads is ridiculous. I remember when I saw the Pepsi ad and thought, "wait, something's wrong here." I wondered what the marketing team was thinking when they came up with that idea for the advertisement. There were a lot of questions surrounding the logic but, to be quite honest, I was not surprised about the lack of awareness.

Celebrities should think twice before doing these performative things to show their so-called support. It's hard to see someone's intentions when they sing over zoom, “take responsibility for racism” or apologizing to Putin for not being his mother, and call it support. Unfortunately, Pepsi was not the only brand to make that poor decision, and things have just kept getting worse since.

By now, we all know about the tragedies in Ukraine. The news about Russia’s invasion has spread worldwide. Many celebrities voiced their concerns and support for Ukraine and called upon their governments to take serious actions against Russia. Actors like Misha Collins sent out a tweet in Ukrainian to be there for his Ukrainian audience. Normally, this is how people should react, right? Nope, not for former Rupaul’s Drag Race, Carmen Carrera.

Carrera is like no other; she saw what was happening in Ukraine, and instead of sending out a thoughtful tweet or posting something sincere on Instagram, she posted a lingerie campaign that included pictures of her wearing the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Yes, you read that right — a lingerie campaign. I thought what Pepsi did was terrible, but this was a new low and, quite honestly, unexpected. You may think that maybe after doing something this outrageous, Carrera would apologize and delete the campaign pictures. But she didn't. Instead, she hopped on Instagram and posted a couple of stories, one of them said, "I was gonna post up half-naked regardless — shrug emoji — it was my moment, and I wanted to share my thoughts about this issue because it came from the heart." Three hours later, she posted what looked like an apology, but you can tell that it wasn’t sincere. She said, "if anyone was offended, I apologize. It wasn't my intention. Let's focus on what's going on in the world and less on me in lingerie. All my prayers go to Ukraine — Ukrainian flag emoji —love u all." The photos are still up on her Instagram.

There is a lot of performative action from people in the limelight. Zoom songs, poorly designed ads, and turning a global crisis into an opportunity to speak about themselves. Instead of posting without abandon, these people should read a book or something and question how this may impact the people actually affected by the traumas happening at that moment. To some, it might come as a shock that the world doesn’t revolve around them, and we don’t actually want to hear from them during a crisis.

To whomever needs to hear this, international crises aren’t about you. They never have been, and never will be. If your crisis-related post isn’t directly aiding relief efforts in some way, it’s performative, and it will come back to haunt you soon enough.