Celebrity Style

Celebrity Style

The politics of Celebrity Style utilizes public popularity, lack of political interest, and media appeal to attract new voters and to gain influence in the political arena.

As a child I spent many Sunday mornings watching WWF wrestling with my brother. Back then I would never have imagined that Jesse “The Body” Ventura would eventually become the governor of Minnesota! He was a public entertainer without a post-high school education, and little if no knowledge of politics. How he won the Minnesota Governor election may be a mystery to some. However, Gov. Jesse Ventura has a distinct, effective political style that is appealing to much of the public.

Basically, the celebrity style has little to do with politics. Jesse Ventura doesn’t have many prominent political figures endorsing him. He hasn’t had any previous family members involved in government. He has little interest in politics themselves. However, although he lacks political interest, he does have political knowledge and positions on important issues. Nonetheless, Jesse would not have been elected governor if he weren’t an appealing celebrity. His celebrity style has many characteristics.

Lack of political interest. Since most common citizens think politics is dirty and remote, a politician with a lack of political interest is appealing to the public. It seems as though he is one of us, in the sense that he doesn’t really care what the politicians are doing in Washington. He doesn’t want to be involved in the “dirty politics,” either. Therefore, the public is not afraid that he’ll pull a fast one on them, or be dishonest about issues. The public trusts him because he is politically equivalent with them. His stance on political issues and solutions to political controversy seems to be simple and practical. Ventura alludes to this approach in a Playboy interview, “I have only a high school education, but I’m street smart, which can be more effective than college degrees. I operate under a rule that I learned during seals training: Keep it simple and stupid. That’s common sense.” To the public, yes, that does seem like common sense, and that is one of the reasons they like him. The public actually recognizes his vocabulary when he speaks about issues such as state budget surpluses, or infrastructure. In fact, Ventura’s speeches are said to be long on personal stories and memories and short on policy details.