Will celebrity endorsement help candidates?

By Kang Hyun-kyung, Jun Ji-hye

Some celebrities have received numerous phone calls from campaign strategists working for the three presidential camps as the race for the presidency heats up, according to insiders.

Candidates often seek to benefit from the extensive network of stars’ fans by courting their public endorsement.

On Sunday, Sul Woon-do, 55, a singer with numerous hit songs, told The Korea Times that some stars join certain political camps with the hope that they can make their voice heard in policies and legislation relating to the showbiz industry.

“Although K-pop is becoming a global sensation, the Korean entertainment industry has still a long way to go in terms of business practices. I believe the social status of singers is still low,” he said.

“We need support from politicians because these tasks will require lawmakers to rewrite existing laws. That’s why I publicly endorsed certain politicians in the past.”

In 2007, Sul supported Rep. Park Geun-hye, then a candidate vying for the presidential ticket of the Grand National Party.

The singer, who enjoys wide support from middle-aged men and women, also joined the Lee Hoi-chang camp during the 2002 presidential campaign season.

Meanwhile, he expressed some regret over his endorsement of politicians, saying “it was not fair for a public figure like me to endorse a certain candidate publicly.”

Fiction writer Lee Oi-soo is one of the celebrities in high demand by political camps.

Would fans be swayed to vote for the presidential hopeful endorsed by their favorite star?

Writer Lee, with a twitter following of nearly 1.5 million, said “yes” to this question.

In September, he angrilg posted a warning message on his tweeter that if he makes a bombshell announcement about a particular presidential candidate, he bets hundreds of thousands of his fans would turn their back on them.

Lee didn’t clarify who the presidential candidate he referred to was and what kind of announcement he was thinking of.

His reaction came shortly after he was angered by a local media report. A Chosun Ilbo journalist misinterpreted Lee’s tweeter message that he posted after a meeting with Rep. Park Geun-hye, now the presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, according to the writer.

After the meeting with Park, Lee had exchanged barbs with one of his tweeter followers as the latter suspected the popular writer was going to back Park. Lee made a case against his follower’s comments.

The two tweeted and re-tweeted their arguments over several rounds.

After this, the vernacular daily described the writer as a backer of Park. Lee criticized the reporter for the coverage, claiming he was quoted out of context and he had never intended to support Park.

His warning of hundreds of thousands of votes against a particular candidate came after this.

Unlike the novelist, ordinary voters tend to disapprove the practice of celebrity endorsement of presidential candidates.

For instance, Kim Jeong-seon, 29, an officer working for Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, said she used to be a huge fan of Lee and Gong Ji-young, a popular female new wave writer. But, Kim said, she isn’t any more.

“I feel extremely uncomfortable when the two writers meddle in politics. I believe they have gone too far,” she said. “The reason that I am not amused by their political comments is that I adore them just as writers. Their political comments in my view are a way of trying to influence their fans’ political orientation.”

Gong joined the Moon Jae-in camp and expressed unflinching support for the presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party.

Choi Joon, 30, a fan of pop singer and dancer HyunA, said he would not be affected by his star’s choice of presidential candidate. “She is a singer that I so much like. That’s all. She has nothing to do with my political orientation,” he said.

Yoon Hee-woong, a senior fellow of the polling agency Korea Society Opinion Institute, said there has been no study to determine the impact of celebrity endorsements for presidential candidates on the political orientation of their fans.

“It’s simply hard to get such results. I assume that it will be reasonable to conclude, though, that fans could take an interest in their star’s favored candidate if they publicly endorse him or her,” he said. “But it is a different story whether those fans will vote for their star’s pick on polling day.”