Take a second and think of your favorite celebrity...got one in mind? Now imagine that they have endorsed a candidate in the 2008 election. Would you be influenced by that endorsement? What if you were young, a college student, or someone who did not know much about any of the candidates, would that make you more likely to take their support into account?
I heard a while ago about Oprah helping Barack Obama with his campaign and recently watched an add on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/... for Mike Huckabee starring the republican candidate and Chuck Norris. An article in US weekly highlighted both of these celebrity endorsements and stated that in the Iowa caucus Obama received 35% of the female vote, while Hillary received only 30%. Could the percentage of women have been boosted by the Oprah viewing females that turned out? Was Huckabee’s win in Iowa attributed partially to his funny celeb add, where he begins, "My plan to secure the border? Two words: Chuck Norris," and then banters back and forth with Norris stating "Huck Chuck Facts," such as: "Mike Huckabee wants to put the IRS out of business," and "Chuck Norris doesn’t endorse, he tells America how it’s gonna be." While some might think yes, well about the Oprah endorsements anyway, many studies show that celebrity influence is very minor.
A CNN poll, shown on a political blog http://angusgastle.com/... reveals that out of 155,484 people polled only 5% said that celebrity campaigning would influence their vote while 95% said it would have no effect. Other polls, as shown on the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press’s website http://people-press.org/... displays poll statistics that show most Americans would be impacted very little by celebrity endorsements, listing people such as Kanye West, who would only make 4% more likely to vote for his endorsement and Jon Stewart who would make 10% more likely to vote for his. The highest percentage that would be moved to vote for an endorsed candidate was one endorsed by the governor of one’s state, followed by Alan Greenspan and one’s minister/priest.
I believe that celebrity endorsement would have a higher impact and almost significant on the more un-informed voter, the one that watches the entertainment channels and never the news, therefore only really knowing about the candidates through the celebs they see. I think that the voters that actually get out there and know what they’re doing would not be impacted much at all. The informed citizen needs no celebrity endorsement, though it may be a very small factor among the many others they consider.