The first celebrity I choose to look at was Manchester United player, Marcus Rashford. A footballer well known in the media for the campaigns he ran during the Pandemic to help provide school children in the UK with meals, something that resonated with him as he relied on school meals to feed him throughout his school years.
The first spike in followers we see is in June 2020, with his follower count going up by 394,483 in the month alone. This was no coincidence, as this is when his campaign began for the school meals. He wrote an open letter to the government of the UK, published to all his social media accounts explaining his struggles growing up and pleading to help kids depending on school meals. His followers drop again till October, where he gains another 398,240 followers for the month which comes after the government reject his proposal for a school meal plan. Rashford’s support continued online, making a plans with supermarkets in the UK to help him on his mission to help feed school kids in needs. This campaign has progressed to the government pledging £170million to help his campaign. After this was announced he now has a series across his instagram with a chef showing kids how to cook healthy meals with a small amount ingredients.
His last spike on his account was in July 2021, a campaign different to his last for racism he has faced in football. After 3 players on the England team were subject to racial abuse online from missing penalties in the Euro finals during summer, including Rashford. The 3 teammates were all singled out online due to their race including 19 year old Bukayo Saka. Rashford took to social media to make a statement explain he “will never apologise for who I am.” Rashford’s statement along with other teammates lead to the arrest of 11 people who took part in the racial abuse online. Marcus Rashford is a player who often takes the knee on the pitch as a stance for solidarity against racism and is a powerful person in society when making a difference in the real world and not just online, which is recognised as he has been awarded an MBE.
Pop Culture and Politics 