I’ll tell you why most celebrities should shut the hell up about politics in a sec. But first, we need to take a step back and understand the process that goes into building a celebrity’s brand.
There are three basic steps:
You begin with the celebrity. What differentiates them from their category peers? Of all their qualities that are unique and special, is there anything that synergizes well with corporate interests? For example, if an athlete’s last name was Banks or if he or she had a money-themed nickname, an endorsement deal with financial institutions might make sense (or cents). If someone is naturally passionate about video games, that’s fine, too: There are deep pockets in that industry as well. An NFL draft pick who’s a country boy at heart might be a perfect fit for a Western lifestyle brand. The possibilities are endless.
Your location also matters. If Detroit drafts a baseball player, you might look at automotive brands. If the Atlanta Falcons draft a football player, Coca-Cola would probably be worth exploring. Usually, each mid-to-large-sized community has a handful of large brands that will overpay for the right kind of local affiliation with the hometown star.
Next, you need to figure out where the celebrity is right now. Not where you wish they were — this isn’t aspirational — but where they actually are. It requires unbiased honesty (which is why ABC anchors can’t do it). Is the celebrity already a household name? Does he or she have any baggage? Any relationships we can leverage? Or is he or she an up-and-coming talent and largely unknown (which is fine, too: blank canvases are fun for creative artists)? Additionally, you need to determine if he or she is under any contracts or agreements that might throw a monkey wrench in your sponsorships.
Finally, you must decide where the celebrity wants to be in the future. If you’re a young, handsome actor, you might have long-term aspirations to be a serious director. If so, you wouldn’t want the brand you’re building in the short term to undermine the brand a director will need in the future. You’d want to build a brand as a naturally gifted artist who can be trusted with large budgets.
Of course, winning takes care of most brand-related pitfalls. Take Patrick Mahomes, for example: As far as I can tell, the brand he’s building is a good-natured, affable doof. Not too many brands want to be affiliated with those adjectives. If Mahomes and the Chiefs keep winning, none of it will matter: To Corporate America, winning is the ultimate aphrodisiac. If the Chiefs continue collecting Lombardi Trophies, Mahomes will do just fine. But if his play ever drops to mere pedestrian levels, he might regret not building a more mature brand identity for himself when the iron was hot — something more akin to the brands of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Troy Aikman.
If a celeb is 100% motivated to jump into the political fray, it’s not your job to stop them. At the end of the day, it’s their life and it’s their brand; the way I’ve always looked at it is: What’s the point in being rich and powerful if you can’t do what you want anyway? Instead, you must apprise them of the potential fallout so they can make an informed decision, and then you need to have a plan in place to manage what happens next.
Sadly, the “advisors” in a celebrity’s orbit often have their own political motivations. Not everything a celebrity does is for him or herself. All kinds of horrible, career-mangling decisions can be traced to unethical family members and hangers-on.
Regardless of their motivation, most celebrities who poke and paw at the political rail are doing their career a disservice. They’re shortchanging themselves.
This is America in 2024: We don’t have a shortage of political commentators and partisan activists! (The opposite is true: Our cup runneth over.) There are MILLIONS of people arguing about politics online. It’s the single most oversaturated category in our modern culture.
Nowadays, there are far more things tearing us apart than bringing us together. We’re fractured and polarized. We went from “one nation under God” to a divided, Balkanized society that’s half red, half blue — and never will the two meet in the middle again. It’s depressing.
And the true, awe-inspiring power of being a celebrity is that you can bring EVERYONE — Republicans, Democrats, liberals, and conservatives — together again.
I can’t do it. I’m just a political commentator.
But if you’re a young NFL quarterback or a hotshot actress, you have the special ability to transcend the political divide — inspiring everyone from all backgrounds and all walks of life.
Limiting yourself to partisan politics is shortchanging yourself.
Every celeb’s career will have a beginning, middle, and end. My advice: When your career is over, you can either look back and say, “Wow, I took a stance on an issue I really cared about. Might’ve cost me money and alienated some fans, but I’m glad I did it.”
If that’s what you want, fine.
Or you can say, “When I was at my apex, America was a hopelessly fractured country. I’m so extraordinarily grateful that I had an opportunity to play a small role in bringing my country back together again. When I looked up in the stands on Sunday afternoon and saw 80,000 screaming fans — black, white, brown, Republican, and Democrat — all cheering their hearts out for me, it brought a tear to my eye. My greatest professional accomplishment wasn’t winning all those Super Bowls, but helping to reunify the American people.”
For the good of the country, please stay out of politics. We’re already divided enough.
Instead, follow a nobler calling: Try bringing us together again.
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