Harnessing The Power of Pop Culture as a Force for Good

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Harnessing The Power of Pop Culture as a Force for Good

November 14, 2025

Pop culture already unites the world in a way few things can. Stadiums fill, hashtags trend, and streaming platforms crash under the weight of global fandom. But the same passion that drives people to queue for concert tickets or binge a new series in a single weekend could be channeled into solving our greatest social challenges-from hunger and mental health to homelessness and inequality.

Pop culture has always shaped what we wear, say and buy. It's time for it to shape what we do for one another.

There's no question that pop culture dominates our collective attention and spending. Each year, audiences demonstrate extraordinary devotion to the people, stories and brands they love. The effects are significant, with global sales in the billions, millions of hours spent and widespread cultural influence.

Every week brings another example of pop culture's prominence, ranging from Sabrina Carpenter's surging popularity to the "can't stop talking about it" impact of Prime Video's The Summer I Turned Pretty.

From the global reach of K-Pop Demon Hunters on Netflix to the record-breaking sales of r.e.m beauty's Wicked For Good capsule collection; from the just-launched partnership with designer Sandy Liang and Gap to the demand that inspired the Savannah Bananas' creation of the Banana Ball Championship; and from Sebastian Maniscalco's wildly successful It Ain't Right Tour to the wild anticipation of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour series on Disney+, the list goes on and on.

A World in Need of Unity and Action

Yet, at the height of this cultural connectivity, our world faces crises that feel increasingly insurmountable. Homelessness, food insecurity, a growing mental health emergency, domestic violence, inequitable access to healthcare, and gun violence dominate the headlines.

Despite efforts of nonprofits, corporations and community leaders, progress often feels incremental. The truth is that the scale of these problems can leave even the most committed changemakers wondering whether real impact is possible.

So we ask: what if the missing ingredient isn't effort or funding, but energy? The kind of energy that fills arenas, powers fandoms and brings people together in shared excitement and emotion.

Turning Passion into Purpose

What if we could redirect even a fraction of the enthusiasm, loyalty and creativity that fuel pop culture toward solving real-world problems?

What if the same determination that sells out stadiums and crashes ticketing sites were applied to ending hunger, advancing mental health or fighting poverty?

Could the solution to society's biggest challenges be found in harnessing the power of the things people go to great lengths to love?

Pop Culture's Legacy of Doing Good

This isn't a new idea; it's a rediscovery of pop culture's long tradition of stepping up when the world needs it most. Think Live Aid, We Are the World, Comic Relief, Hollywood Gives Back, the fashion industry's Seventh on Sale, the NFL's Crucial Catch and Broadway Cares. These mega-moments and memorable campaign's raised billions of dollars and rallied millions of people around causes that mattered.

The most famous examples were, by nature, moments, extraordinary peaks of compassion that eventually faded from view, while the long standing campaigns have done little to scale their programs to match the scale of the challenge they're designed to address.

Imagine the Impact

Pop culture doesn't need to reinvent itself to drive impact; it simply needs to align its extraordinary infrastructure around purpose. The opportunity lies in coordination, not invention.

Consider what could happen if the four major sports leagues, the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, synchronized their existing community foundations under a single banner to combat childhood hunger. Each already runs local initiatives; together, they could reach every stadium, city and school district in North America.

Perhaps the world's leading music labels, building on the momentum of "Music Cares," could create an ongoing mental health fund and awareness platform for young fans, utilizing tours, playlists, and streaming partnerships to destigmatize seeking help.

Gaming studios, with their massive online communities, could integrate purpose directly into play: in-game challenges, digital collectibles and livestream charity tournaments that raise funds for survivors of domestic violence while engaging players in education and empathy.

Entertainment studios could do what they already do best: tell stories. By aligning a slate of films and streaming content around issues such as climate resilience or food insecurity, and linking viewership to donation triggers or volunteer opportunities, they can transform awareness into measurable action.

These aren't abstract ideas. They're extensions of systems already in place. What's missing isn't capacity, it's coordination and shared intent. Collaboration is the superpower that would unleash collective impact.

Each idea is bold and entirely achievable. The infrastructure already exists: massive audiences, influential creators, storytelling platforms, and a proven ability to inspire collective action.

Why It Matters Now

At a time when polarization divides communities and cynicism runs high, pop culture remains one of the few truly unifying forces. It crosses borders, languages and politics. People may not agree on much; however, they'll dance to the same song, cheer for the same team or cry at the same storyline.

That's an extraordinary common ground. It's precisely what social change needs most: a way to bring people together not through ideology, but through shared emotion and purpose.

A Call for Something Bigger

We can and should continue to support the incredible work of nonprofits, corporations and civic leaders tackling today's most challenging problems. However, lasting progress demands something more-a scale of engagement that only pop culture can deliver.

When the creators and companies behind the world's favorite music, sports, film, fashion and gaming experiences see themselves not just as entertainers but as problem solvers, their cultural capital becomes social capital.

Pop culture has always reflected who we are. Now it can become a model of who we want to be.

Turning the world's greatest source of passion into its most powerful engine for change-now that's a show we'd all pay to see.

Originally published on O'Dwyer's on November 14.

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POSTED BY: Amy Terpeluk, Kyle Farnham