Celebrity as a political resource: the human rights now! campaign

Abstract

The use of celebrities as endorsers of causes and even political candidates has become ubiquitous in modern culture. Aided by the rise of mass and social media the impact of celebrity on the organizations that use their power is seldom examined. This work critically reviews the role celebrity played in one of the first and largest events of its kind—Amnesty International’s Human Rights Now! global tour of rock musicians in 1989. It analyzes both the short-term human rights goals of the tour and the long-term influence the tour had on organizational culture.