Sir, – Anthea McTiernan discusses the failure of endorsement from the likes of Keira Knightley and David Beckham to swing votes for the Remain campaign in Brexit ("Brexit: British needed more Kerry Katona and less Keira Knightley", Opinion & Analysis, June 28th). She surmises that perhaps "the wrong celebs" had been used and that someone like Kerry Katona would have been more effective.
I can list the names of all of Kerry Katona’s exes, former Atomic Kitten bandmates and pop hits, and I have also bought a bikini only because I saw Beyoncé wearing it on a poster. However, the idea that Kerry or Beyoncé would sway my vote in a referendum or election is comical. I go to them for entertainment and escapism, not political wisdom.
In fact, I believe that celebrity endorsement is often counter-productive.
Most celebrities live in mansions, have their own drivers, and wouldn't know an electricity bill if it hit them in the face. Everyone who does not live in that world (even the section of British voters who "pick up a copy of New! and Closer every week with their beans and pork scratchings" that McTiernan says may have been more receptive to a Katona Remain endorsement) knows that any celebrity's reality is entirely different to their own, and that their political and economic concerns will be accordingly different.
I shudder every time I see another Hollywood star coming out publicly against Donald Trump. It’s difficult to imagine a hard-pressed, disgruntled American voter who is thinking about showing a middle finger to “the establishment” saying to themselves: “Oh wait! Miley Cyrus says I shouldn’t vote Trump, so I’d better not!”
In fact, to that voter, Cyrus possibly personifies “the establishment” itself. – Yours, etc,
SINÉAD O’LOGHLIN,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.