It is a good idea to rope in celebrities for promotion of social and environmental campaigns as they will also motivate their fans to join them, provided that they make genuine efforts to bring a difference

Having a celebrity as a goodwill ambassador of a campaign/ products is a marketing strategy. Each and every organisation wants their work to be showcased and reach out to people. Celebrities are someone who we ordinary people look up to. We are really interested in their day-to-day activities and make sure that we are up-to-date with their lifestyle. So in this case, if a celebrity starts to promote a campaign then that campaign will be benefited. No matter how good the campaign’s goals are, if they don’t succeed to reach out to people then their work cannot be known. In such a scenario, a celebrity helps to promote their work and be in news. People would be much inspired and attracted to such campaigns which would further benefit the organisation itself.

Sadly, many such celebrities are there as ambassadors to promote themselves rather than the campaign. A celebrity may not realise how their single activity can heavily influence normal people. It would be better if a celebrity chooses a social campaign only if they are really interested in it. In this way they can be more involved and true message can reach out to people. If a celebrity is not much into social and environmental campaigns then they can turn down the offer. Definitely people want to see their role models getting involved in good work but if it is kind of forced then this will upset all the well-wishers out there.

However, people must continue their social and environmental works even if they don’t have a celebrity as their goodwill ambassador. And if celebrity becomes an ambassador, s/he must take his/her work seriously and deliver what the campaign actually works for.

— Tenzin Kelsang, Swoyambhu

Celebrities are the role models of society. Their involvement in social causes will have positive influence as it encourages people from different walks of life to think and act prudently. Awareness is a significant thing that helps in driving society in the right path. Be it Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala as the goodwill ambassador of the Bagmati Clean-up Mega Campaign or anyone else, their roles in the respective cause brings positive energy. Besides that, it is our social responsibility which consolidates social unity. It can also be the platform for people to have social interaction.

In the present day of participatory democracy, the state seeks to rope in not only celebrities but also general people in social and environmental campaigns. It helps to make the effort of the state more fruitful and sustainable. Provided that the event should not be taken more as an opportunity to take ‘selfie’ and be the hero of social media. It should be accepted as a social service by heart. The adage ‘Journey of thousand miles begins with one step’ should be made true by every individual’s dedication to the social and environmental cause.

— Shyam Uprety

This trend is commonly followed by fashion brands, but nowadays celebrities are also being used for social and environmental campaigns because it is believed that celebrities have an  ability to catch attention of public and bring light on the campaign. Such a trend leads the campaign to wider audience. Hiring a celebrity to endorse such campaigns would seem to be an effective and profitable way of expanding the growth of such services. As ramifications, it brings vast difference to respective campaigns — rather than being beneficial to audience, it becomes only a marketing strategy. Celebrity may overshadow such campaigns. There are chances of celebrity getting more attention than the campaign that is being endorsed. So, it is obvious that roping in celebrities as ambassadors for such campaigns doesn’t bring positive impact.

— Suruchi Aryal, Dhapasi-8, Kathmandu

Social ambassadors are the current new medium to raise awareness in various sectors, and celebrities are roped in as such ambassadors. They engage themselves in social works so that public can get inspired through their work and continue the positive message to be a responsible citizen. I do not regard the involvement of celebrities in various fields, which is for social awareness, a publicity stunt but rather a support to the development of various fields. When people hear that a superstar is coming for some social purpose, people rush and grab a seat there. Then when the superstars carry out social works, people tend to follow it through public participation, which is a sign of development.

— Tulip Gyawali, Minbhawan, Kathmandu

It is nothing more than a marketing strategy. Celebrities have many followers and these followers blindly support them. Due to this, celebrities are involved in various campaigns to seek support from public for the campaigns’ benefits. If a campaign on distribution of free medicine is going on in a village, there will be a presence of celebrities in today’s scenario. Why? Because they attract more people so as to gain more publicity. It is also a bonus for another business plan that is hidden inside free medicine distribution campaign. On the other hand, celebrities perform in almost all TV commercials. Isn’t this a marketing strategy? If not then why only celebrities are part of such commercials even though there are so many options?

— Kailash Sapkota, Lokanthali, Bhaktapur

Today’s world is the world of advertisement. Advertisements nowadays have been only the way to share information to public. The best way to do so is through the involvement of celebrities. When we see celebrities as a part of any advertisement, we pay attention to that. The same formula is being used in various social and environmental works. If celebrities are involved in a tree planting campaign, people get interested in it because of him/her.

For example, Dhrmus-Suntali Foundation is building houses for under privileged people who became  homeless after the earthquake of 2015. Such works inspire many other people to contribute in helping the poor and needy people. Isn’t this good? Won’t this make any difference? Celebrities’ involvement in such kind of work may be a marketing strategy, however,  we should never miss the positive aspect. If people follow and support the campaigns due to the involvement of celebrities, why not use it to the fullest? So, the involvement of celebrities as goodwill ambassador would surely make a difference to respective campaigns.

— Iswor Sapkota, Lokanthali, Bhaktapur

Humans have always been followers. We follow latest fashion trends for example, even if we personally do not like that fashion trend. We have evolved from a pre-historic ‘herd’ mentality whereby it is predestined that we follow the trends. And celebrities are the trendsetters, as we all know. Actors like Manisha Koirala (beauty with brains) have profound influence on public. Their actions will create a reaction on public. It is paramount therefore, that celebrities do not misuse this media spotlight and public support for self promotion. The action must be genuine.

— Nerinav

Ordinary citizens have great interest and expectations from celebrities. In the present era of social media, celebrities across various nations enjoy huge support, media attention and a huge fan following, and that has been captured very successfully by advertising agencies in promoting various products — from beauty creams and soft drinks to cars and real estate business. Every political party uses celebrities for promoting their ideology and political agenda to reap the maximum benefits from their fan following. Hence, it is not a bad idea to use different celebrities as goodwill ambassadors for national and international campaigns for creating better ecosystem and environment, communal harmony, national integration or for any other noble cause. It certainly grabs attention of ordinary citizens and helps in putting forth an idea and programme quite successfully. However, one must remember that celebrities are humans too; and however successful, rich and famous they are, they are also vulnerable to human emotions, corruption and any other social evils that impact our society like any other ordinary citizen. It is our responsibility to take their advice with a pinch of salt; and not to follow them blindly just because others are doing that. One should respect the celebrities but must use logic in accepting products/services/campaigns they are advocating for judiciously.

— Saikat Kumar Basu

Nowadays, the participation of renowned peoples as a brand ambassador is in growing trend. The main reason behind such a move is to emphasise campaign as well as to provoke the positive and optimistic changes in people. It is a good move to aware people of society, however, we need to ensure that the celebrity is highly qualified and possess uttermost interest in that particular field. Otherwise, it will bring out several negative impacts as people are highly influenced by such celebrities.

Social and environmental sectors include health, natural resources, national heritages among others. They are often regarded as important and sensible part of environment. So, organising several campaigns related to these issues are worthful, and roping in celebrities as brand ambassadors is a pragmatic choice as they are people’s favourites. However, this move will only be fruitful if renowned people are good influencers and motivating advocators. Celebrity endorsement is necessary to flourish the campaign’s motives and to enhance the plan. But if such a strategy is used only for the sake of marketing purpose, then it will create chaos, and never contribute to the welfare of the nation.

— Ashish Ghimire, Banasthali, Kathmandu

Social and environmental campaigns are conducted for sustainable development. In order to properly market them many celebrities are chosen to as their ambassadors. They are the iconic public persona of the glam world. They are idolised by many people. So, it is natural that if they represent a product/campaign, many people would follow them. This might be considered as a marketing strategy because the well established persona representing a product will catch the interest of the viewers easily as compared to a blank advertisement. This will cause the sales to grow higher providing exposure to the product. Likewise, if some social and environmental campaigns are led by inspirational national figures, many other people would be inspired to follow their path, to create a positive impact.

— Shristi Rai

Of course, it’s a modern trend that celebrities around the world are getting involved in various social and environmental activities. On top of that, they are taking such tasks with utmost accountability. For example Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has been declared special envoy of UNHCR, which means she has been doing all important works related to that position of her.

But I really don’t think we need any kind of post in order to work for such campaigns. Even normal people like us can do so, provided if we have commitment, seriousness and diligence. So, any interested person has to be guided by positivism while doing such kind of tasks. Even I would love to devote myself to such a task if it’s possible for me throughout my life.

— Pratik Shrestha, Buddhanagar, Baneshwore

In the present age, the influence of a celebrity exists across all age groups. Being known to this fact, the campaigners involve celebrities for various social and environmental campaigns. It has become a global trend of involving celebrities for charities. If an actor from a famous movie gets on television and asks people at home to donate money for a cause or involve in tree plantation, that advertisement will get more attention. Whenever an ordinary person sees a celebrity, the brain connects them with the good feeling that they get from watching their (celebrities’) shows and stimulates the individual to pay more attention. This influences people and causes them to be involved in social campaigns. Also, the marketers are benefited since the campaign gets much public attention and reaches to the mass easily.

— Barsha Adhikari

Most of us are familiar with the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’ — an environmental campaign — launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi all over India. It became very popular, impactful and helpful in making a huge difference to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of India. I was highly impressed by the concept of nominating people for the cleanliness campaign, which was inspired by the concept of the ice bucket challenge. This campaign had an impact all over India and now there have been a lot of improvements.

In the context of Nepal, there is ‘Bagmati Safai Abhiyaan’ — a campaign to clean the Bagmati River — has running smoothly since a long period of time. And we have witnessed difference in the cleanliness of the River as compared to the past. Likewise, rather than roping in some celebrities into social and environmental awareness campaigns in Nepal, if we too can get inspired by ice bucket challenge and nominate people for any kind of campaigns that are being organised every then and now then, it would be much more interesting, exciting and impactful in bringing out the change in an effective way.

However, roping in celebrities as goodwill ambassadors for various social and environmental campaigns do make some difference to the respective campaigns because people who look up to them (celebrities) get inspired and motivated to follow their path. Other than that unless people aren’t aware and concerned enough to make a positive impact around them, the involvement of celebrities only will not be enough. By appointing a celebrity as a goodwill ambassador, the organiser of any event/ campaign wants to grab people’s attention so that their event becomes talk of the town. But in the long run it doesn’t help at all. Celebrities are busy people. They get paid for whatever job they have been assigned by the organisers and roping them in for campaigns is just a marketing strategy. Though there might be some celebrities who are involved in such events wholeheartedly, selflessly and voluntarily but not everyone does the same.

— Tejaswi Pahari, Jawalakhel

These days it is quite common to see almost all the social service campaigns being led by public figures. However, the question arises: ‘Does the campaign with celebrities yield any fruitful results?’ In my opinion, using celebrities to endorse campaigns yields to the greater popularity of the event. In today’s era, celebrities are connected with their followers via social networking sites and when celebrities lead such social campaigns, the social media are flooded with news and updates about the events. And this helps in making the event popular and creates awareness in people. Also, there are many followers who like to follow their favourite celebrities and when they see their celebrities being associated with any organisation they also take a step ahead towards being associated with that organisation. As a result the social campaigns can see increased participation. Moreover, great public figures also do have huge bank accounts out of which they could make significant donations to the programmes that require funding. Thus, in my opinion endorsing campaign through celebrities is a very good marketing strategy implemented by the intellectuals involved in various organisations.

— Mahima Poddar

Involving celebrities as goodwill ambassadors by far has brought positive impact in various campaigns. The celebrities have always been someone whom most of us look up to. They are ideal personalities. We follow them, their fashion, their fitness regime et cetera. So, if a celebrity is chosen for such campaign, it will automatically highlight the campaign and people will be more aware and interested. According to me choosing celebrities as ambassadors is a crucial step for marketing the campaign and a trend that should be carried on. This trend will facilitate the work of various social and environmental campaigns.

— Ruja Amatya