Every now and then celebrities feel compelled to use their platform to make a difference in the world. Public service announcements are a tried and true way for them to help spread an important message while simultaneously promoting themselves (without seeming like they’re promoting themselves, of course.)
There’s no shortage of these PSAs floating around out there. We’ve scoured the internet for the best ones featuring some of our favorite gay icons.
Scroll down to check them out.
Bette Midler
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Hair teased to high heaven, Better Midler warns against the ills of crack in this 1987 PSA that plays at the beginning of the VHS version of her film Outrageous Fortune.
“I’m so hot. I’m so cool. I’m so where it’s at. I’m it. I’m a genius,” Miss Midler says. “Yeah, crack’ll make you feel like that. For exactly 10 minutes. Then you crash.”
“If anyone offers you some,” she says, “tell ’em where to shove it!”
It’s unclear when exactly Cher shot this PSA promoting Medic Alert bracelets, but judging by her hair, snakeskin print blouse, and plastic surgery, it was likely around the time her album Believe was released.
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand did a PSA for the National Association for Retarded Children in the early 1970s. The video opens with a clip from her 1964 hit “People.”
“That was a lucky song for me,” Streisand coos. “But it made me think: What about people who aren’t so lucky? Like the thousands and thousands of children who are born each year mentally retarded?”
Interesting correlation, Babs.
The year was 1988. As she was preparing to release her iconic Like A Prayer album, Madonna (and her eyebrows) teamed up with the National AIDS Network for the “Artists for Life” PSA series that encouraged AIDS awareness.
Dressed in a black leather jacket and standing in the stairwell of what appears to be an inner city high school, the singer tells viewers: “Not having sex is one way to avoid AIDS. Not hanging out with people who shoot drugs is another. If you do have sex, use a condom.”
Noted.
Thanks, Madge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkLXJf18Pag
Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone channels Catherine Tramell in this dramatic PSA for the American Stroke Foundation.
“There’s something you should know about me,” Stone purrs at the beginning of the video, giving the camera her best bedroom eyes. “I’m cold. I’m calculating. I get what I want … I am a stroke!”
Ben Dover
“People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”
Well by that logic, the “ret@rded” need people more than anyone does, so they must be even luckier.
I never did understand that song! And it’s weird to hear someone actually say “ret@rded” – aside from “South Park” cartoon characters – now that it’s considered such a bad, bad word.
Desert Boy
Maybe I’m being overly politically correct but each time Streisand says “ret@rded child” I cringe. It’s like hearing Archie Bunker say “coloreds” or “orientals”.
marc sfe
@Desert Boy: It was the early ’70’s and that was what terminology was used. By today’s standards, it crass and no longer acceptable, but then, that’s the language that was used. I’m not condoning it, it’s just how things were 40 years ago.
jonjct
wow, i get it. now that gays have entirely given up on traditional moral compasses such as the church, we have gay icons dictating morals. this is great.
Chuck Macklin
@ jonjct: And what are you doing on this site then? Hmm??
Stefano
@Chuck Macklin : he is here to complain about gay atheists who criticize Christians and want ALL gays back to church because being an atheist is a sin for him.
Ben Dover
Poor, pitiful jonjct – our own ret@rded child!
Hillers
@Ben Dover: 10 points!