Why PR ninja?

When I was about six or seven, my father took me out on Hallowe’en for my trick or treat rounds. This was the coldest Hallowe’en on record and I remember with incredible detail the difficulty I had maneuvering around the countless ghouls and vampires in my layered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turle costume ( I was not a fan of the Ninja Turtles– I was a fanatic). My little sister, clad in her princess gown, followed behind eagerly until we hit the infamous haunted house on 14 Glenbrook Street. This man was known to delight in scaring the wits out of little children and the elaborate lengths to which he went to decorate his house flaunted this reputation. As I dragged her through the clouds of dry ice and strobe light flashes, my eyes focused on a life-size gorilla sitting on a lawn chair on the front step. In the gorilla’s grasp was a bucket full of candy. I climbed the porch steps until I was standing infront of this great ape. As I reached into his treasure chest of treats, the ape stood and let out a giant “Roar!”– hoards of children from as far as the end of the street jumped in fright. What this man disguised as an ape did not know was that this Ninja Turtle was as authentic as could be; right down to the numchucks which I swung into his groin without hesitation.

It wasn’t until this year that I looked back at that story as one of my earliest memories of crisis management. Admittedly, a crisis in the professional communications world may not be solved with such brute force, but I use this story to illustrate the future of the communications practitioner. A term I coin the “public relations ninja.” In order to understand this new breed of professional, a brief understanding of the ninja is in order.

The ninja, as a symbol, has enjoyed success in contemporary pop culture. Although an  object of parody in cartoons and television skits, the role of the ninja in feudal Japan was a serious one. Primarily assassins and spies, ninjas were often used by feuding rulers as an instrument to create social chaos and uprising. This is how the ninja adopted the reputation of having no allegiance or loyalty, despite belonging to a warrior class with rules and codes similar to the samurai.

In many respects, public relations professionals are not unlike the ninja. We too are instruments of a larger power– a power that has traded in its kimono for a business suit and a tie, its warlord title for CEO or President. As communications specialists we are sometimes seen interchangably as sneaky or evasive by the public in our statements to the media. Lastly, and most instrumental to our professions future, we are the masters of many arts. Media relations, event planning, speech training, web design, corporate communication, and social media– our job entails so many aspects that we are also as misunderstood by the public as the ninja.

Where does the future of public relations stand? Corporations are already beginning to see the value of communications. As business models and mathematical measurements become applied to our practice, the results of effective communications are being legitimized in real dollar figures. The future of this business begins with its graduates– the public relations ninjas, the masters of many arts.

~ by Brandon Carlos on January 25, 2008.