\u201cWe\u2019ve got two very well-known broadcasters and a former All Black captain. You have to go back a pretty long time, in fact, perhaps never, to see an election where there are three such high-profile candidates in the running.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing here is the news cycle, right? Parties announce this. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives them a massive amount of coverage for the candidates that are running, as well as for the party\u2019s leader, of course. All of these announcements happened alongside Winston Peters, in New Zealand First\u2019s case, and David Seymour, in Act\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
\u201cKiwis know who these people are. Often with these candidates, if they are in a senior role with the party, they need some degree of introduction. These three do not. You can host a town hall meeting tomorrow and likely pack the room with people who want to hear from these people. They\u2019ve followed them for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey already have their minds made up about them, and perhaps that point is another reason as to why it might be a little bit risky. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people already have their minds made up on the likes of Michael Laws and Paul Henry, perhaps less so for Taine Randell, but that could also pose a risk to the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is whether these candidates will be a net benefit for them, and as minor parties attracting their own section and degree of voters, you\u2019d have to think it\u2019s a relatively smart strategy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outside the West Wing of the White House. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Worldwide celebrities have never shied away from entering politics.<\/p>\n
When rapper Kanye West announced his run for US President, academics pondered the dangerous allure of the celebrity politician.<\/p>\n
\u201cA mix of charisma, media-savvy, and anti-establishment airs can help them appeal to voters,\u201d University of Essex Professor Natasha Lindstaedt wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cCelebrities are often charismatic and well-versed in engaging with the media. They already have more experience in working on camera and cultivating an image,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
All over the world, celebrities have become involved in politics, with some occupying the highest offices.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a former comedian and TV star who played a fictional president on screen before being elected as the actual President of Ukraine in 2019.<\/p>\n
He had capitalised on widespread public distrust in traditional politicians in his TV series about a high school teacher who becomes president after a rant about corruption goes viral.<\/p>\n
Former reality TV star Donald Trump won the 2016 US Presidential election after appearing as \u201cone of the people\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the 80s, people were becoming increasingly anti-government over the Vietnam War, and that created an opening for a candidate who promised to \u201cget the Government off your back\u201d \u2013 a former movie star named Ronald Reagan. <\/p>\n
\u201cRonald Reagan and Donald Trump famously used the term \u2018Make America Great Again\u2019. Trump popularised it, but not many people know that, in fact, it was Reagan who had used that line many years earlier,\u201d Griffiths said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re seeing a similar theme across all three of these celebrity candidates here in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re harking back to a happier past. We had Michael Laws talking about the fair New Zealand of old. We\u2019ve had Taine Randell, who was enormously popular as an All Blacks captain in the late \u201990s, when it\u2019s probably fair to say the world was a cheaper, happier, and more peaceful place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Paul Henry at his first press conference alongside David Seymour saying: \u2018I want to go back to the New Zealand where all of us in our class wanted to be astronauts\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen to the full episode<\/a> to hear more about:<\/p>\n The \u201ccelebrity ego\u201d challengeAdjustment to political lifeMixed track recordsAnti-establishment appeal.<\/p>\n The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5pm. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime\/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.<\/p>\n You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It follows two surprising additions to New Zealand First\u2019s candidate list: former Whanganui Mayor, National MP, and broadcaster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3623,1668,42,9641,117,43,16546,1118,6270,28630,21643,1436,8808,223,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-532496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-celebrity","tag-front","tag-headlines","tag-idea","tag-new","tag-news","tag-nothing","tag-of","tag-office","tag-page","tag-politician","tag-rise","tag-running","tag-the","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}