MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Celebrities rely on a variety of public relations instruments to build their reputation including, media interviews, social media and television appearances. A growing instrument among many celebrities is philanthropy, which is the use of their image, social networks and wealth to disseminate certain kinds of knowledge, ideas and support relative to systemic social problems. Even through there is a reliance on philanthropy as a tool for public relations, there seems to be a limited knowledge concerning its real impact. The point of the current paper is to examine how philanthropy is used as a tool for building and maintaining celebrity reputation. Using TV Guide’s Top Celebrities of 2014, the researchers surveyed the public’s knowledge about the relationship between philanthropy and celebrity. The results of the study show that celebrity philanthropy is not, afterall, an important aspect of reputation. Although respondents believe that celebrities are philanthropic as a way to manage reputation, respondents could not match the celebrity to their personal charity of choice. That is, when asked to match a celebrity to their personally relevant charity, respondents scored extremely low. The implication is that celebrity involvement in philanthropy is currently misperceived by both the public and public relations practitioners.