The celebrity Effect

About 7 years ago when her career was on fire, my mom said to me, "i wonder if Lady Gaga were a christian, how many people she would have led to Christ." At that time i just smiled in agreement. But as expected, recent events have made me reconsider. I do not think my mother was giving a salvation speech, i believe she was pointing to the power a celebrity wield

  Have you seen Phat Girls? Then you must know Monique. Monique was a big girl and she was so fucking proud of it. She wasnt faking that pride either. She exuded so much confidence that every fat person wanted to stay that way and every skinny bitch like she called em, wanted to be her. It was a couple years ago when i heard about her weightloss journey. It was shocking cos it made us doubt all of that confidence&pride. She did it for love and her health. Her weight loss had almost as much effect as her phat pride. A lot of women who looked up to Monique decided that if she could lose weight, then they could too.

Sometime in March ,2018 Rihanna attacked Snapchat for a seemingly offensive ad supporting domestic violence. In less than 48hours Snapchat lost about a billion dollars in stocks. Why? How? It's Rihanna
She's just that powerful. 

When Oprah's bookclub re-opened on Instagram, the first book it started with was The Water Dancer by Tanehesi Coates. It didn't take long for the pictures to follow. Multiple people had gone to purchase the book. Both hard and soft copy. I bet that even if the book wasn't a bestseller before, it would have been catapulted to that height after being chosen by Oprah. Why? Cos it's Oprah. If she says its good, its awesome.
Let's not look too far, In Nigeria,  we have Naira marley. Boy, this year has been a miracle for that young man ; from almost landing in Jail to being literally one of the most influencial Nigeria artist. He has more than half the country's youth professing being a Marlian. 

I feel that personally, aside Top Pastors, celebrities are the next most influencial pepple particularly in the Tropics.
What they say and how they say it
What they wear and how they wear it
What they do and how they do it
Commands so much awe and imitation. 

In 4 instances i have demonstrated how much power celebrities can have on their followers. These followers love, adore or look up to these people. It's an awful amount of power. A power that is exploited by brands and thus, endorsement deals. If Beyonce says its good then it must be good.

   But the sad part is what is being done with this power. We have some of these celebrities endorsing drugs, alcohol addiction, fast money, fraud, depression, baseless sex, gang activities and terrible dressing. And especially the kids, they just want to be like the guys they watch on tv. They want to be cool. Its such a poor foundation to build on.

What would be really great is more of these our celebrities supporting staying in school, abstainance from drugs, proper dressing, care for mental health etc. Not just supporting but also practising 'em.The cool needs to change from deleterious to healthy. I like to believe that a lot of children and teenage lives will be saved by this.

  A last instance.
Sometime ago, Dr. Ben Carson had a little tango with cancer. After getting over the scare of metastasis, he debated treatment options. He could approach a non-surgical treatment that involved natural medications and some lifestyle modifications. One thing that affected his decision was the effect it would have on the ones who knew em. What if because of his choice, other people start to reject surgery in favour of the other treatment? A treatment whose effects and benefits may vary with patients.

He chose surgery not considering just himself but the thousands who looked up to me. That my friends, is an example of someone who used his celebrity power for good. We sure as hell need more of that.