to dislike pop stars being applauded for their charity work / philanthropy

[mls3]

When actually they are doing the job they love, and the charity work boots their profile and is often used for tax avoidance purposes.

I see Chris martin and photos of him using a private jet despite his work with green charity's, bono is always going on about giving dispite him avoiding paying tax. 1d to a charity gig and all of a sudden they are philanthropists.

Don't watch TV but I do resent all the unadressed junk mail that comes through the letterbox thought some dodgy deal with royal mail. Looks like some charities waste money making pens and bookmarks.

Good. It's just a discussion on a message board, not worth getting too excited about

If the charity is doing good work it can raise money anyway it thinks fit as long as no-one is harmed in the process. We all have free will either donate or not.

You'll be glad to know off the back if this thread I donated some money to a good cause this morning. Guilt is a wonderful enabler

I've never seen a celeb endorse a charity and felt the need to give to that charity.

Don't know anyone else who has either.

I pick my own.

I work with a very very small charity. One of the trustees lives near a v high profile celeb and got to know them quite well so asked if they could help us out. They did and leant on a few pals to help out too. The impact on our little tiny charity was absolutely enormous as it gave us a huge one off boost in income that allowed us to build a war chest for long term investment projects that we had had to turn down for years. It was gamechanging for us. So for that reason I give celebs charity endeavours a big thumbs up, whatever their motivation.

Also I read the Kids Company / Coldplay article. How amazing is 1m per year of long term income commitment and what could anyone find to criticize?

Also I read the Kids Company / Coldplay article. How amazing is 1m per year of long term income commitment and what could anyone find to criticize?

Wouldn't it be lovely if the Football leagues/players could get involved in a similar fashion? They really must have money they wouldn't miss, even allowing for a relatively 'short' career. And their influence would be huge.

I struggle with the likes of Mr Barlow telling us all to drink one less latte a week and donate the money to save a children's hospital when the amount of tax he has dodged could finance many hospitals.

I don't mind the celebrities charity work ( although sometimes it is a bit ugh when they shout about it) but the comic relief type things where celebrities are all "I've been to Africa, what have you done, dig in your pocket and donate" REALLY pisses me off. Yes well done Mr Millionaire, you gave a little of your pocket money to the Africans, unfortunately no I don't have £25 a month I can donate right now. Being made to feel guilty for not giving to charity by rich people whose donations as a percentage of their income is the equivalent of a few pence of mine...

Yes it would. In fact it would be great if everyone earning more than X gave a proportion to charity. But they don't and giving cannot be forced.

I prefer to be positive about those who do plus try and do my own bit. It is the best response I have.

ever since Live Aid, stars have seen what a boost to their career a good charitable profile can give them. I take involvement in Children in Need etc with a healthy pinch of salt.
I know as a fact that one of the artists already referred to in this thread as being a big supporter of green issues asked to have environmentally friendly album packaging. When it was pointed out to them that the incremental cost would be theirs to bear, the album went out in a standard toxic ink / plastic jewel case / standard glossy paper.

I remain however firmly on the side that whatever the motive, if the charity benefits, it's alright by me.

Worthy causes getting money is a good thing, no matter where it comes from.

However, 'doing charity' is as much a part of the celeb package today as having a stylist or PA is. Big celebs employ people whose sole job is to make sure they are seen to be doing enough charity - however, it has to be the 'right' charity and compatible with their image.

I remember Farrah Fawcett, before she died of anal cancer, saying that not too many celebs were happy to be associated with her cause.

YANBU.

U2 are the worst for this.

Bono drones on endlessly asking us to give to charity in the name of ‘making poverty history’. All the while he avoids paying taxes in his country of residence by placing U2’s official company base in Holland, a tax shelter. Taxes, those pesky things that among other things go towards relieving poverty.

Wanker.

I was so full of Bono-rage that I didn't even notice you mentioned him in your opening post!

I certainly agree that celebrities should be paying taxes before any look at me charity stunts, but beyond that as others have said, if celebrity involvement boosts the profile and or income of a charity it is probably for the greater good.

U2 or cold play I wouldn't be surprised if either of them would be unwilling to reduce their enormous wealth by a faction to pollute the world less.

Talk is free, actually doing something that will cost you and you are unlikely to see a return on is beyond most charity supporting celebs.

To the person that said if she won 50m she would give 25 away. What if you won 25 would you give nothing away? Surely 1m is enough for anyone?

YANBU

OK...I admit to be a total cynic when it comes to the usual C list line up of celebs who largely in my opinion will not fundraise for any reason other except for raising their own profile (with one or two very exceptional exceptions)

I remember watching a few years Cheryl Cole and others trek up Kilimanjaro for Red Nose Day……..to be frank it made me want to kick the TV.

We know how awful the poverty is in Africa, but sending a celeb there and then focusing in on them crying every 5 mins just trivialises the whole thing. You then pan back to a shot of celeb wheezing up the mountain and the voiceover trivialises the whole thing even more by announcing "celeb A is thinking of Uganda as it helps her get up to the mountain" or words to that effect.

I do feel a bit uncomfortable watching a group of celebs, who collectively are worth many millions of pounds, standing in front of the poorest people in the world asking the public to donate £1 towards a charity. It just doesn't work for me.

The recent TV genre of the intrepid celebrity out of his/her natural environment...swimming with dolphins..riding a motorbike through Africa... is as false as an episode of Eastenders.

YADNBU

There's even a (1980s) pop song about it! "Gut of the Quantifier". Nails it for me. But then, I'm a bit cynical I guess.

The BBC are really guilty of this; they use "charity" as a reason to spend large production budgets on filling their airtime (radio and tv - Radio 2 and chris evans' in particular). Yes they rais a lot of money out of it but they use it as a very convenient hook to give reason to a significant proportion of their output. irritating

giving to charity good giving to charity publicly to raise the status of the charity umm yes still good (bit cringe making) blithering along 24/7 about green issues then getting into your pollutant mad jet/car/bike really not good

pleading with people on the breadline here to pay more for the government over there to spend on weapons to kill people with bloody awful (ask oxfam why it changed its policy from giving money to buy a chicken )

I don't have a problem with it unless it involves hypocrisy. For example Chris Martin flying by private jet and being involved with green charities. Because what he is basically saying is that he he doesn't want poor people to fly. He thinks it should be reserved for people like him but all us nasty plebs should be forced to stop generating greenhouse gases.

And Bono. Bono avoids tax, in particular he avoided paying tax in Ireland when the exchequer there desperately need the funds. They've faced devastating cuts in Ireland. You even have to pay to see your GP. But Bono removed his business interests to Holland to avoid paying tax. The worst thing about that is that he trys to dictate to governments what they should spend their budgets on but he refuses to contribute to those budgets in any meaningful way. It's absolute rank hypocrisy of the worst sort.

I found the whole Live 8 movement absolutely distasteful, a bunch of billionaires and multi millionaires lecturing the rest of the world on making poverty history? I felt like reaching through the TV screen, grabbing Madonna and shaking her, and screaming in her face that if anybody was sitting on some poor African's share of the wealth it certainly wasn't me.

1D doing a benefit concert though is fine, it publicises the charity, raises money for them. Can't see the harm. I would only have a problem if they were for example raising money for cancer charities but advertising fags in Africa or something.