Celebrity endorsements don't mean much

Samantha Hayes, in Washington, D.C.

June 11, 2008

            I've written about celebrity endorsements a couple of times and inevitably the question that comes up is, 'do they really matter?' Most of the time, probably not. Although I think there is a pretty good bet that Oprah's public support of Barack Obama may have helped him, but even the queen of talk's endorsement is difficult to quantify.  His Republican opponent, John McCain, has a few celebrity endorsements. California Governor (and movie star) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Tom Selleck. But it's the Democrats who usually seem to shine in Hollywood. Barbara Streisand, Brigitte Nielsen, and Jack Nicholson all backed Hillary Clinton.

            Among Obama's star posse is Scarlett Johansson. The actress appears in the Emmy-nominated "Yes We Can" video that gets a ton of hits on YouTube. And not only does she support Obama, she swaps emails with the Democratic nominee-to-be.  Johansson told the Politico, "You'd imagine that someone like the Senator who is constantly traveling and constantly 'on' - how can he return these personal e-mails?"

            Maybe Johansson wants everyone to know how accessible her Presidential candidate of choice seems to be. In the world of celebrity stamps of approval, might this influence some undecided voters?

            For an answer to that question, I enjoyed reading some of the responses from those who read the article on CNN's website. My favorite is from Robert who says, "Few men wouldn't respond if Scarlett Johansson emailed them." Yeah, no kidding.