Did the U.S. election prove that celebrity endorsements don't work?

After a star-studded summer of campaigning, it seems that even a call from the Avengers wasn't enough to secure the presidency for Kamala Harris in the latest U.S. election.

The Vice President had been memed online for months, and publicly supported by figures including Cardi B, Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jane Fonda. But did any of this celebrity messaging make a difference to voters in the end?

Today on Commotion, culture critics Pablo The Don, Scaachi Koul and Rad Simonpillai join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to look back at the role celebrity endorsements and social media may or may not have played in this year's presidential race.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Scaachi, we talked about this idea of whether celebrity endorsements matter or not. Kamala had Beyoncé, and Taylor [Swift], and Charli XCX, and this whole brat thing. Trump, in his corner, he had Elon Musk, Hulk Hogan, Dr. Phil, he had Kid Rock. But one of the [people] he had is Theo Von, and Joe Rogan. The presence of Joe Rogan and Theo Von in this conversation is making me think about the echelons of celebrity endorsements that actually do matter or can move the needle in this moment.

I think Joe Rogan and Theo Von reach a different audience in a particularly effective way. We cannot, I think, dismiss the idea that even though Joe Rogan's endorsement came the day before the election, it played a role in this cocktail of the energy going to Donald Trump. So when you think about that, does that make you rethink the pyramid of celebrity we think about?

Scaachi: Yeah, maybe. I mean, I feel like we don't know enough yet about why people voted the way they voted to be able to say anything about this yet. I have sat in deep fear of Joe Rogan for many years, so I'm glad everybody else is catching up, I guess. But I don't know if that's what did it, or if the people who listen to that show were already going to vote for him anyway. 

I think it is nice to think about how celebrity may have impacted this or not, and I do think that's a factor for sure. But I think there is a loathing that a sizable chunk of this country has towards minority groups writ large, and they're happy to vote on those lines. It doesn't really matter who supports them. I think Taylor Swift is a really powerful billionaire, but I think Elon Musk is a more powerful billionaire. So she lost in the race of billionaires, effectively.

Elamin: Rad, you can trot out Beyoncé as much as you want. That's not going to be sufficient enough to convince somebody who's worried about money to do something else. Do you think the way the Democrats fixate on celebrity endorsement kind of ends up working against them? 

Rad: Well, I don't know that it works against them, because if anyone's going to hold it against them, that person was never going to vote for the Democrats anyway. But I do think it certainly confirms this idea that Democrats are part of this coastal elite with Hollywood that's trying to infect the world with the woke mind virus, and all of that. And again, if you're someone who believes that, you were never voting for them anyway. Of course, I see the advantage of why they want these celebrities like Taylor Swift, because they're trying to reach these younger voters. You know, you're getting Sabrina Carpenter to list all these places to vote. But at the same time, it comes with a certain hollowness because it's like, great, I'm voting for that me espresso. Like, really? 

But the thing is, of course Joe Rogan's going to have more influence because Joe Rogan is talking about real things with them all the time, whether you like it or not. Those are the people they're having conversations with. They're not having a conversation with Queen Bey. They're exalting Queen Bey, but they're not actually engaged in real issues with Beyoncé and Taylor Swift at times. So I think when you had the Avengers conference call coming out for Kamala, I was like, well, no, we never actually look to you guys for opinions on our real life … right? That's not going to actually move things. Maybe the alternative to Joe Rogan is when they had the Breakfast Club going out and having these conversations. If they had anyone as big as that, maybe that moves the needle more.

Elamin: Pablo, in 2008 when Barack Obama became the candidate, I think he used social media in a different way to engage voters. Now we look at the legacy of that and 16 years later, the role social media plays in all of this has clearly changed. How are you feeling about the role social media plays in shaping the political zeitgeist? Because it is a much more powerful tool than it was in 2008, and I'm not entirely sure that's for the better.

Pablo: I think the thing I keep going back to is this idea of perceived authenticity — what we as voters look at as being authentic. Unfortunately, I don't see Beyoncé throwing out a music video telling us to go vote as authentic. I look at that as, okay, thanks. You don't talk to us. You don't give us interviews. You don't even put out visuals for your own albums. And now you want me to believe that when you trot yourself—? No, I'm mad about that one. 

Elamin: Still mad about the visuals!

Pablo: She needs to drop the visuals.

Scaachi: She does, she does.

Pablo: Yeah. Then you come on Halloween and you dress up as Pam Anderson, and then you're like, "Hey, and by the way, vote because me and Kelly Rowland are out here." Girl, you haven't spoken to me in months. The last time you spoke to me, you tried to get me to buy a $95 bottle of whiskey! Please, come on now. So it's just this idea that people are following what they perceive as being authentic, whether that's Joe Rogan's tweets, Elon Musk running amock over there on Twitter. I'm telling you, I think the random person who has consistent viral tweets on Twitter might have more power than Beyoncé in swinging elections at this point. It's definitely a theory in my head. But when these celebrities are the people we're looking at for endorsements, but we also sit online all day talking about how we don't believe anything that comes out of their mouth — we know that they are billionaires only trying to make money off of us — then what makes it seem like when they throw an endorsement out via a tweet or via video, that I'm suddenly now going to believe this person is being 100 per cent authentic? 

Elamin: I really appreciate that in a conversation about the role of pop culture and the election, you're like "Beyoncé, where are the visuals?" That's range and that is talent.

Scaachi: It's a good point.

Pablo: I have my foot on her neck until I get them. 

Elamin: And speak on it.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.