Celebrities in Pins: Political Statement or Mere Performance?
The 2025 awards season is coming to an end with Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, which means the curtain will also soon close on opportunities for celebrities to make political statements. Entertainment industry award shows have a long history of getting political, whether in speeches on the stage or in red carpet interviews. But in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and the ensuing war in Gaza, a rather unexpected battle of the pins has emerged in Hollywood with the yellow ribbon pins and the red Artists4Ceasefire pins.
Yellow ribbon pins organized by Bring Them Home, an Israeli hostage advocacy organization, signifying support for the return of the Israeli hostages were spotted during the 2024 awards season. The effort for celebrities to wear the yellow pins was coordinated by Ashlee Margolis, founder of Beverly Hills-based branding agency The A List. Avi Arad, an Israeli-American film producer wore the yellow pin at the 2024 Oscars, and stars such as J. Smith-Cameron of Succession and John Ortiz of American Fiction wore the pins at the 2024 Grammys, where singer and influencer Montana Tucker went as far as having a large yellow ribbon sewn into the front of her dress.
At the same Grammy ceremony, as well as at the 2024 SAG Awards and Oscars, celebrities such as Annie Lennox, Phoebe Bridgers, Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell and Mark Ruffalo sported red pins in support of a cease-fire in Gaza. The pins were created by Artists4Ceasefire, a collective of artists and advocates who came together in response to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Israel and Palestine after October 7. The group wrote an open letter to President Joe Biden calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and the return of hostages, which garnered over 400 signatures from those in the Hollywood entertainment industry.
What Does This Mean for the 2025 Awards Season?
This year’s awards season began on January 5 with the 82nd Golden Globes where the battle of the pins took a bit of a turn. Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who has been outspoken in her support for Israel and the return of the hostages, faced criticism for not wearing the yellow ribbon pin at the Golden Globes. After the show, Ynet and N12 reported that organizers of the award show had prohibited Gadot from wearing the pin because it would have been a political statement. Users on social media jumped on the perceived hypocrisy that Gadot wasn’t allowed to wear the yellow ribbon pin whereas Australian actor Guy Pearce wore the Artists4Ceasefire pin. However, Gadot denies being told she could not wear a pin and The Jerusalem Post received a statement from Sunshine Sachs Morgan and Lylis, the public relations firm that represents the Golden Globes, saying “The Golden Globes does not have a policy against wearing pins or other signifiers that support, or are perceived to support, political or social causes,” adding that Gal Gadot and other presenters and attendees of the Golden Globes had not been told they couldn’t wear the pins. Rather than donning the hostage pin, Gadot shared a social media post as a call to free the hostages before the event and wore a yellow diamond ring to the award ceremony.
After the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas was initiated in January, questions arose as to whether the Artists4Ceasefire pins would be spotted at the Oscars ceremony on March 2. On February 20, the group wrote a letter calling for celebrities to continue wearing the red pins. The Brigade, an organization of about 700 producers, filmmakers, agents, managers, publicists, executives and actors wrote a statement in response to the Artists4Ceasefire letter. “Today, we will not be silent,” reads the statement echoed in social media posts of those in the entertainment industry. “That pin is no symbol of peace. It is the emblem of Jewish bloodshed.”
“On February 20, the same day the world learned 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his 4-year-old brother Ariel were strangled to death by their terrorist captors in Gaza, you doubled down—urging celebrities to proudly wear your bloodstained red hand pin,” the Brigade continues. “Have you no shame?”
Time will tell whether either of the pins will be worn at the Oscars. Meanwhile, the yellow ribbon pin has been seen on actors at movie and television premieres, including Jason Isaacs who wore the pin on his lapel at the recent White Lotus Season 3 premiere and Shira Haas’s yellow ribbon earrings at the premiere of Captain America: Brave New World, in which she plays Israeli agent Ruth Bat-Seraph in the film.
What Do These Pins Really Mean?
The significance of the yellow-colored pin dates back to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis when 52 Americans in the U.S. embassy in Tehran were taken hostage for 444 days. Bruce Laingen, a State Department foreign service officer, was the person in charge of the embassy at the time. Back home, his wife, Penne Laingen, who took on the role of organizing the families of the hostages, is credited with giving the yellow ribbon its meaning. In an interview during the crisis, she said that acts of violence and anger would not help the hostages. When the reporter asked her what Americans should do instead, she said, “Tell them to do something constructive because we need a great deal of patience. Just tell them to tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree,” referencing the 1973 Tony Orlando and Dawn song. Soon yellow ribbons adorned lapels, trees and front porches across the United States where they served as a powerful expression of hope and a national call to bring the hostages home. Additionally, in 2008 Israelis tied yellow ribbons to their car mirrors to show support and hope for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was kidnapped into Gaza. In 2023, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum introduced the yellow ribbon as a symbol to call for the return of the hostages held by Hamas.
In a statement on its website, the group Artists4Ceasefire says the pin is rooted in a call for love rather than hatred: “[The] pin is composed of a red background to symbolize the urgency of the call to save lives. The orange hand conveys the beautiful community of people from all backgrounds that have come together in support of centering our shared humanity. The heart being cradled in the center of the hand is an invitation for us to lead with our hearts, always, to lead with love. When we lead with love, we understand that all of our fellow beings deserve to be loved and protected.” Artists4Ceasefire additionally says they are using their platforms to call for a permanent cease-fire, the safe return of all hostages and the prompt delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza.
Those in the Jewish sphere, including End Jew Hatred and Sarah Tuttle-Singer in an opinion for The Times of Israel, believe the hand symbol used in the Artists4Ceasefire pin has a more sinister meaning behind it. On October 12, 2000, during the Second Intifada, IDF reservists Vadim Norzhich and Yosef Avrahami were brutally killed by a Palestinian mob while being held at the el-Bireh police station in Ramallah. The two soldiers had mistakenly entered the Palestinian Authority-controlled city before being attacked. The incident became known as the Ramallah Lynching, and a photo of Aziz Salha displaying his blood-soaked hands to the cheering crowd became associated with it. “The image of red hands is associated with one horrific event imprinted on the minds of Israelis and Palestinians,” the official X account of the Israeli Foreign Ministry tweeted last year after the Oscars. “The 2000 Ramallah lynching of Israelis. This symbolism isn’t a coincidence.”
Political Statement, Fashion Statement, Maybe Both?
As these statement pins have proliferated, some criticize wearing them as mere lip service. In a New York Times style section Instagram post after the 2024 Oscars, musical performers Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell were shown wearing the Artists4Ceasefire pins with the caption: “On Oscars Carpet, Red Pins Worn to Call For Cease-Fire in Gaza.” A commenter on Facebook noted that while they and others wore the pins, “not one called for a cease-fire in their speech. Wearing these pins when you aren’t going to use your actual voice is pointless and performative.” Of course, many of the celebrities who have worn the pins have also spoken in support of Palestine on their social media platforms.
In contrast, many argue that the yellow ribbon pin isn’t even political. “The yellow ribbon is intentionally apolitical, symbolizing solidarity with hostages taken by Hamas—people of all backgrounds: Jewish, Muslim, Druze and others,” an Instagram post by Jewish Unpacked, an independent media organization, reads. “Demanding their safe return is not political; it’s a basic human and bipartisan issue.”
Generally speaking, a fashion statement is an article of clothing, jewelry or accessory that draws attention and expresses part of someone’s personality. As such, these pins grab the attention of award show viewers and introduce issues of significance that lead to civil discourse. The pins can also be a way for the wearer to use their voice without saying something, especially in cases where artists may not win an award or have the opportunity to give a speech. These days, the quintessential red carpet question, “Who are you wearing?’ becomes “Which pin are you wearing and why?” Whether or not you want to see celebrities donning these pins, it looks as though they are here to stay, at least through the 2025 awards season.
Top image credit: UCLA (CC BY-SA 4.0).