Celebrities - a help or a hindrance?

Rachel Holloway argues that charities should only use celebrities if they are truly dedicated to the issues.

Bob Geldof at Glastonbury Tony Blair and Bono shake hands Chris Martin in Ghana with Oxfam

We British do love reading about celebrities. We love our glossy, gossipy magazines. We love knowing what they wear and what they eat, but what about the charity they support? Celebrities have been widely used to promote worthy campaigns and to highlight needs in the developing world, and when put like that it's hard to criticise. But is it all good? Is it really going to benefit the cause long-term? Or is it simply making us more obsessed with celebrities, whilst pushing the problems of the developing world into the background?

The problem of celebrity endorsement is that the industry is incredibly fickle - what's in this week may be out the next - and that kind of attitude is dangerous for charities whose work is literally life and death. That said, it's fair to say that a "popular" charity can do so much more than one that isn't, and celebrities have the potential to influence their fans and raise awareness of their favourite cause.

But what happens when that celebrity's popularity wanes? So does the popularity of the clothes they wear, the diet they endorse and tragically the causes they support. Celebrities can catch immediate interest, but they struggle to maintain it in a society with an ever-decreasing attention span. Oxfam's work isn't a fashion accessory and the problems in developing countries should not be treated as such, which is a risk when using celebrity endorsement. The focus should not be on supporting a charity because it's the latest singer's favourite, but on the issue at hand.

However, it's not all bad news! Choose the right ones and celebrities can be incredibly beneficial. Bono, Chris Martin and Bob Geldof are as famous for their support of Make Poverty History as they are for their music (probably more so in Sir Bob's case) and their commitment encourages others to do the same. These are people who cannot be accused of jumping on the bandwagon - they've been on there for a long time.

It's this consistency that can inspire young people to get interested and stay interested. So, if a celeb is involved with a campaign for just one event, like Live8 or Band Aid, that isn't enough. Once a celebrity is involved that should be it - they become a role model and they have a responsibility to keep actively supporting the issue. We can sniff out a fake from miles off; we can tell who's being real and who's not!

So all in all, using celebrities isn't a bad thing, but choosing the right celebrity is incredibly important. Just as a one-off handout to a developing world farmer isn't the solution, neither is a celebrity putting their name to a campaign for five minutes. Let the issues at hand take centre stage, with supporting roles from celebrities who would campaign whether they were famous or not, and together there is a chance of getting people interested long-term.