Principle charity
Charity activities are a good thing in public holidays. But how serious is the commitment of the stars to take?
Christmas is coming, it's - every year - high season for charity. TV stations and radio stations are popping up with fundraisers and charity events. Sarah Connor gives us a serious smile for a cell phone that also benefits KOMEN eV, a breast cancer treatment organization. Countless gift ideas vie for the favor of the buyers, there is the good conscience, which one acquires when buying a charity product with the same, a real argument. Celebrities donate clothing, props or experiences that are auctioned to the highest bidder and charitable, be it a self-sewn T-shirt by Sarah Kuttner or a small role in the next Til Schweiger movie.
Who can, who gives, so that the poor and sick benefit. Is it really like that? The fact is: the higher the star requirement, the higher the media attention. Meanwhile, a year-round charity industry has developed, many of whose benefits many want to take off. The concept is called Attention based charity. Without the media involvement of celebrities, the social engagement of high society would probably falter. Do good and talk about it - only: Without reporting would hardly listen to anyone.
And every star and everyone who wants to become one knows that self-marketing can not be carried out intensively enough. Any red carpet should therefore be embarked on for career reasons, because the many charity events are just right!
But there are also examples of celebrities who do more than just fuss about charity parties. Undisputed Bob Geldof or Bono may be understood as conviction offenders. Geldof drummed in 1984 for colleagues for the charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas Time" (whoops, Christmas time) and organized in the following year with the "Live Aid" concert, the mother of all charity events. Many others later jumped on the train of charity songs, be it for Africa or for the victims of hurricane Katrina. The records were sold a million times over because of the great musical brilliance, but because they give us buyers the feeling that they are part of what our idols have found to be good. And Bono, frontman of U2, is now less a politically engaged rock star, but rather as a singing politician on the road.
So when it comes to more than donating a worn hat or spending half a day in a recording studio or a photo studio, then true volunteerism is at stake. Prominent UNICEF ambassadors lined up as did the godparents of this year's World AIDS Day, rapper Samy Deluxe, speed skater Anni Friesinger, actress Christiane Paul and footballer Philipp Lahm, who not only advertise AIDS awareness posters, but also many other opportunities for the good cause to enter - no fee, of course. To report on this is not reprehensible, but sheds the light of attention on grievances in this world as desired.
The international stars of this scene are certainly Sharon Stone, who hardly misses an opportunity to act as a fundraiser and has already auctioned a passionate kiss for $ 50, 000, but also George Clooney with his commitment to the African crisis region Darfur, Bill Clinton and his Clinton Foundation or adoptive parents like Madonna or Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who all do more than just hold their faces in front of the cameras. Whether or not the charity campaign recently launched by Nicole Richie and her future rocker husband Joel Madden will truly live up to their promise for the benefit of the children is yet to come.
Without celebrities, the principle of charity does not work. Perhaps the commitment with which the stars decorate is not always disinterested. But the main thing is that there are some who actually do something. So who cares if it comes out good in the end?
