How celebrities take advantage of “Charity” to deal with their PR

PR is defined as communication management to help organization achieve its objectives as well as satisfy its publics. It focuses on the relationship between organization and its publics. But this theory also can be used in celebrities’ life. Celebrities tend to attract more attention from public, say, media, fans, agency, and so on. Hence, the relationship with their publics plays a crucial role in their personal career.

In daily coverage, it is easy to find out that as an effective way to facilitate the relationship with publics, charity is not only used by organizations but also by celebrities. Attending charity events or arranging a charity organization is commonly used by celebrities to establish a positive image or help them get out of reputation crisis in public.

Usually, attending charity movie or advertisement is a common way for celebrities to gain a good name in the public. Recently, a movie called The Foundation of a Republic has attracted much attention from people and media. This movie was played for celebration of China’s 60th birthday in 2009. Until in the end of this October, the box office has exceeded 400 million. The reason why it is so popular is not only its huge cast of celebrities (more than 170 famous personalities played in the movie, including Zhang Ziyi, Jet Li, Jackie Chan and so on), but also its charity element. It is claimed that every celebrity in this movie played without any payment and all proceeds of the movie would go to China’s charity projects. These two reasons have helped the movie attract much more media exposure than any other movies, much media coverage makes the movie name and celebrities’ names appear in people’s eyes continually, it has become the best free advertising way for the movie and all celebrities in the movie.

Some celebrities choose to establish a charity organization. Because of their special social role, celebrities are easier to find more donation sources. For example, Jet Li established the One Foundation, the concept of which is based on One person+ One dollar + One month=One family. It was established in 2008, and until now, it has gained nearly 200 million for China’s charity project. And through this charity organization, Jet Li has increased his reputation among his fans. Everyday, on his personal blog, people show their positive attitude for his admirable behaviour.

There are many examples of celebrities to sell their personal stuffs for charity or arrange a charity show or solo concert. And many celebrities can be seen in charity events, for instance, a coverage about Angelina Jolie’s adoption or Michael Jackson’s visit to orphanage. Anyway, celebrities’ charity events tend to attract more media exposure than their common activities.

Actually, it is hard to judge the true motivation behind celebrities’ charity activities, no matter what they do for charity is under the shadow of the suspicion that whether they just want more media exposure to increase their fame. Anyway, there is no doubt that doing anything for charity has become one of the most popular ways for celebrities to gain good reputation among their publics.