Why Companies And Charities Can't Share Celebrities

Why Companies And Charities Can't Share Celebrities
FILE - In this Nov. 10, 2013 file photo, actress Scarlett Johansson arrives for the screening of the film 'Her' at the 8th edition of the Rome International Film Festival in Rome. Israeli drink maker SodaStream International Ltd. recently signed the American actress as its first ?global brand ambassador.? Her first commercial is to debut during the Super Bowl on Feb. 2. SodaStream has come under fire from pro-Palestinian activists for maintaining a large factory in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in 1967 and claimed by the Palestinians.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 10, 2013 file photo, actress Scarlett Johansson arrives for the screening of the film 'Her' at the 8th edition of the Rome International Film Festival in Rome. Israeli drink maker SodaStream International Ltd. recently signed the American actress as its first ?global brand ambassador.? Her first commercial is to debut during the Super Bowl on Feb. 2. SodaStream has come under fire from pro-Palestinian activists for maintaining a large factory in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in 1967 and claimed by the Palestinians.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

Scarlett Johansson is grappling with a flurry of criticism over her fallout with global charity Oxfam International. Her dual role as a goodwill ambassador for the charity and product pusher for the controversial Israeli soda machine company SodaStream proved too irksome for Oxfam. (The company’s factory in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank clashes with a growing boycott of goods produced in Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.)

Johansson scrambled to justify her dual role on her blog before resigning from her Oxfam post, but she isn’t the first celebrity to run into branding wars between companies and charities that shimmy up to a shared glitzy endorser. Here are other examples of the endorsement battles between brands and humanitarian groups over their celebrity ties:

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