And out of a tweet was born an idea that’s caught on with caterpillar legs…introducing The International PR Justice League!

Several in the field have been identifying blog posts that blast public relations and shove a dagger in the side of our credibility, and these damaging posts are sometimes from folks within the ranks (perhaps from newer practitioners) who issue broad-brush generalities against the profession at large.

Of late, folks have had their blood boiling more than most (me among them) about this, and a tweet between Beatriz Alemar of BlackCat Strategy spawned her idea, tongue in cheek, for the PR Justice League.  Immediately, it took off:

• Danielle Kelly, APR, of Canada, signed on immediately even before she knew what the heck this thing would morph into.
• Someone said we needed costumes (the color pink by Erica Allison); I suggested purple and Shonali Burke said they had to be midnight purple or eggplant to go with her skin tone (who’s not vain?).
• I put out the call for a logo contest and Steve Lichtie in Scotland jumped in to suggest we call it the “International” PR Justice League and suggested purple spandex for the costumes, ahem, and a location for our first meeting on a desert island.
• I suggested a badge to recognize members of the PR Justice League, and then I went and registered the domain, just in case.

But, wait! Is the cart before the horse? What exactly will this be and what will it do?

The International PR Justice League

Objectives

• Uphold the image, credibility and professionalism of public relations
• Develop a community to “police” the profession for un-justice to the field of public relations
• Educate while negating content that portrays public relations as unprofessional

Strategies

• Invite PR practitioners from respective countries to represent their regions
• Monitor PR community for anti-profession sentiment and provide opposing educational views via a blog squad.
• Showcase best-practices and case studies to oppose negativity and educate audiences about strategic public relations

Audiences

• Peers in public relations offering negative views of profession
• Peer bloggers
• New members of Justice League to be blog squad
• Clients, business owners
• Marketing and advertising sisters
• Students in PR and newcomers to the field

Tactics

• Develop a badge for recognized Justice League members; illustrate a cartoon character in passion purple (spandex?) as the symbol of balance and voice of PR.  All suggestions can be delivered to @balemar who is leading the charge on our graphics.

• Enlist the blog squad when an issue arises and ask for an author to analyze and rebut on this blog or their own; however, everyone will be made aware that a Justice League blog has been published.
• Address the basics and demonstrate best practices i.e. Public Relations vs. Publicity (there’s a hot crisis about this right now) and other topics – measurement (ad value equivalency), etc.
• Invite blog posts and case studies about good PR to educate incoming, young and seasoned professionals, clients, and others about what we do.

Membership

To be considered a member, you will need to showcase your passion for the profession by upholding the image of the industry, actively educating others and rebutting unnecessary attacks on the industry.

We’ll soon be building an International PR Justice League page on this site with a membership “application” for your completion.  We’ll want to know what you’ve been up to lately to uphold our profession. And, members can be invited and recommended by peers, as well.

There’s a lot to consider, and because we’re in public relations, someone has an idea to make this even better; what did we miss?