If you are raising a child on planet Earth, Justin Bieber is a name with which you will no doubt be familiar. Whether you love or hate him and his music, his recent visit to Anne Frank's house has generated plenty of media coverage.
Aside from recently keeping fans waiting way past their collective bedtimes and tantrum thresholds for a concert at London's O2, Bieber also raised the concerns of animal rights activists by apparently smuggling his pet monkey into Germany. From the earliest times of celebrity adulation, from the Rudolph Valentino days through to now, the song remains the same. Where the stars go, so does the media.
The issue around awareness-raising is often deemed to be the sole preserve of solemn experts speaking with educated intensity on the topic at hand. But academics speaking out of their own and everyone else's comfort zone isn't always to be advised – as anyone who saw David Starkey on Newsnight will fist-bitingly remember.
The visit by Bieber meant that the issue of the Holocaust spread exponentially through the demographic of his fans. An interview with UN ambassadors Angelina Jolie and William Hague (some bloke in government, apparently) proved that sometimes the glittering crumbs that fall from the golden table of celebrity do so with merit on an overlooked issue. As the Dutch journalist Robert Chesal said on Radio 5 live today: "There are probably millions of beliebers Googling Anne Frank now and that's a good thing." Grey-haired academics are worthy and notable, but do they speak to young people as effectively?
In fact, irrespective of our age, aren't we all enmeshed in celebrity culture to such an extent that it can open, even slightly, the sternest of implacably closed minds? There is a curious and necessary symbiotic relationship between charity issues and celebrity. Many who work in the third sector may grit their teeth when a reality TV or pop star speaks in a well-intentioned but somewhat uneducated way on crucial issues like disability for example; but I've always felt that speaking only to those who already understand is self-defeating. Those who bemoan "self-interested" celebrities embracing causes have a point. But while they may spark more than a little ire, they also raise a lot of money and promote information. The side issue is that they also provide a platform for debate.
I confess to feeling furious when I suspect darker motives for championing an issue. Nobody likes to be used, but there is nothing to suggest that this is the case here. In Bieber's case, he simply doesn't need to create press opportunities. He is already a globally recognised 19-year-old. Guy Kawasaki, who worked for Steve Jobs, cites Bieber's team as being unparalleled in terms of marketing their brand. Through strategic planning, they have generated a fanbase and brand that remains unrivalled.
Although his words on the Anne Frank House guestbook can undeniably be described as self-centred, they do remind us all that Anne was just 15 when she died in Bergen Belsen. So the fact that the most famously free teenager in the world visited the attic space of the most famously hidden teenager contains an added poignancy.
At the end of the day, Bieber's slip highlights the issue of remembrance to an audience who need to learn about it. I imagine that Anne would have approved.
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