WARNING IN ADVANCE, THERE ARE SOME PARTS WHICH ARE REALLY OFFENSIVE!!Former American Idol Kelly Clarkson merely lip-synchs for charity
In your private life, when you commit to helping a friend or loved one with a project and then renege on your commitment, you damage your reputation with them, because they're disappointed in you. When you happen to be Kelly Clarkson, however, and you ride in on America's good graces from their generous votes seeking a sing-along idol, the stakes are higher, because your public reputation is at stake.
On Thanksgiving Day, Kelly Clarkson sang in the half-time show of the Cowboys-Jets game, officially launching this nation's oldest charitable fundraising drive, the Salvation Army's Red Kettle Campaign.
This year, the Salvation Army launched the "e-Kettle," where people can make donations online. This year, Clarkson is the honorary chairperson for both Red Kettle operations.
Clarkson told the press that you can donate to her e-Kettle, which should be found at
www.kellyclarkson.c om. But it's not there.
It would seem that someone with her fame-power could generate a lot of charitable giving, but an extensive search of her Website produced no kettle.
And since I couldn't find the kettle, I couldn't find out how much in donations she's generated thus far, because she hasn't followed through on her advocacy.
I would be willing to chalk this up to an inefficient webmaster, someone who doesn't update the Website as often as they should, but no - there are press releases from more recent than Thanksgiving on her site, and an even bigger surprise came when there was no news of her half-time event at all. Her Wikipedia entry did mention the game, but there was no mention of the Salvation Army.
What about your fans, Ms. Clarkson?
Common sense stipulates that if you have a fan site, and you want your fans involved in your career (what performer can do without their fans?) you tell them about every event you perform at, especially big media events like NFL half-time shows.
In your private life, when you commit to helping a friend or loved one with a project and then renege on your commitment, you damage your reputation with them, because they're disappointed in you. When you happen to be Kelly Clarkson, however, and you ride in on America's good graces from their generous votes seeking a sing-along idol, the stakes are higher, because your public reputation is at stake.
On Thanksgiving Day, Kelly Clarkson sang in the half-time show of the Cowboys-Jets game, officially launching this nation's oldest charitable fundraising drive, the Salvation Army's Red Kettle Campaign.
This year, the Salvation Army launched the "e-Kettle," where people can make donations online. This year, Clarkson is the honorary chairperson for both Red Kettle operations.
Clarkson told the press that you can donate to her e-Kettle, which should be found at
www.kellyclarkson.c om. But it's not there.
It would seem that someone with her fame-power could generate a lot of charitable giving, but an extensive search of her Website produced no kettle.
And since I couldn't find the kettle, I couldn't find out how much in donations she's generated thus far, because she hasn't followed through on her advocacy.
I would be willing to chalk this up to an inefficient webmaster, someone who doesn't update the Website as often as they should, but no - there are press releases from more recent than Thanksgiving on her site, and an even bigger surprise came when there was no news of her half-time event at all. Her Wikipedia entry did mention the game, but there was no mention of the Salvation Army.
What about your fans, Ms. Clarkson?
Common sense stipulates that if you have a fan site, and you want your fans involved in your career (what performer can do without their fans?) you tell them about every event you perform at, especially big media events like NFL half-time shows.
Granted, there are other online kettles you can donate to; it's easy to download a template and set up a site, whereupon e-mail links are sent out to friends and family - the power of collaborative charity.
But this is about donations averted, and a reputation deflating like a day-old balloon. If you accept a position of responsibility and make any claims at all, you've got to make sure that what you say you'll do, actually gets done. I understand that with people of Ms. Clarkson's stature, it's difficult to keep all your commitments
in check; that's what publicists are for.
That's why I sent an e-mail to her publicist at RCA Records, Roger Wydanowski, asking if he believes that Ms. Clarkson is fulfilling her obligations to the Salvation Army. No reply.
Xenophon Press covers regional public relations for the Salvation Army, and when I contacted them about the missing Clarkson kettle, it was news to them too. "I'll look into it and get back to you."
We live in the Information Age now, where promises or claims people make can be analyzed within moments.
When Dan Rather made early claims about polling results in the presidential election in 2000, the Internet fiercely contradicted his claim in moments. Recently, a National Intelligence Estimate refuted two years of Bush administration claims that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon.
That's why living a public life in the Information Age is a double-edged sword - you get a lot of attention, but you have to be careful of what you say.
If you want to be loved for singing someone else's songs, do that. If you want to be loved for "original songwriting," do that, but please, Ms. Clarkson, if you really don't care about your charitable obligations, don't make them in the first place.
It would be really neat to see a show called "American Idol" where people, instead of singing terribly, one-upped each other to see who could do the most good for those who need it, instead of merely pretending to, so that you remain America's most beloved idol.
Now if Fox produced a single charitable reality show on - "Surviving a Habitat for Humanity;" "Who Wants to be a Do-Gooder?" "Curing AIDS in Africa"
