Every subculture has their own celebrities that they try to emulate and I don’t think that will ever change. It’s a natural part of the human experience to want to be like the people that are lifted up in our society, I don’t think that’s something we can change, so what we need to change is the people that we lift up as celebrities. I think our desire to claim someone as a celebrity goes back to that part of the human experience that is worship. We were created to worship a perfect holy God, it’s simply hardwired into our DNA. And I think that some of that crosses over, whether that’s right or wrong, into our views of other people and to an extent celebrity culture is inevitable. The use of celebrity in advertising is unavoidable. As long as we have advertising, companies will try to exploit our feelings toward celebrities to push whatever product or idea they’re selling. Knowing that, what option do we have as Christians but to embrace this inevitability and use it to our advantage? While the use of celebrities in advertising is something that we aren’t going to be able to get around, it’s not always a bad thing. Celebrities can be used as good role models for people across the country, especially young people who want someone to look up to. The following ad is from a group called Focus on the Family, a global Christian ministry that provides help and resources for couples to build healthy marriages and for parents to raise their children according to biblical principles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqReTDJSdhE

The ad starts with a woman displaying a picture of a baby boy holding a football. She starts by saying “I call him my miracle baby, he almost didn’t make it into this world.” The woman in the ad is Pam Tebow, mother of Heisman winning quarterback and outspoken Christian Tim Tebow. Tebow is probably the most famous Christian athlete in the world right now and arguably the most famous athlete period in the United States. He is the epitome of celebrity. Tim Tebow did not choose to be a celebrity, but it’s something we as a culture, especially as a sports culture, have made him into. But there are worse things in the world than having a celebrity who endorses a company that claims as its belief, “Ultimately, we believe that the purpose of life is to know and glorify God through an authentic relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ.” Tim Tebow is a Christian celebrity that uses his celebrity status to point people toward the only one truly worthy of their worship, Jesus Christ. In this way celebrity and celebrity advertising can have a positive effect. While nobody will likely have a transformative experience where they accept Christ as their Lord and savior because they hear that Tim Tebow is a Christian, they might be directed to a place where they can have that transformative experience.