hey bro's get this!

An Overzealous Public Relations Expert, Trying to do a Job

Know what I mean “bro”

     Recently while planting trees I had the experience of meeting a public relations expert who was totally clueless when it came to public relations and talking to young people and by listening to him I thought he surely should be, as well all of us were members of one big family unit, and it was his job to remind us of that.

      It’s not so much that were not a family but instead his use of the slang word “bro” was a bit over the top and at times seemed to be as if he was talking down to us and doing the opposite of what I am sure he intended to do. It was “bro” you need to turn here, as he was talking to the young bus driver of which  I am sure wasn’t part of his family and had never sat down to dinner next to him , and it was hey “bros”, we are gathered here together to volunteer and I appreciate your help in a bold boisterous manner. I know for a fact I had never met this man before and knew right away that if I did I would have immediately reminded him that he was not part of my immediate family, as my family is quite different from him in lots of ways.

    My family would be quick to tell you to f--- off when trying to use street slang to impress them. It may take a little while to rough their edges enough to let you surely know that we do not share any family resemblance or lineage that would suggest that we have anything in common. Now we may include you into our fold but this would be by our invitation only and after you had proved yourself worthy. And not that we are anything special to include or exclude anyone but instead to just know who our real family is and again the story behind each and every one of those members we sometimes care deeply about or can’t wait to bad mouth. But surely no stranger is going to stand around and just worm his way into our confidence by throwing out a few slang words.

      As a public relations liaison man I give him an F, as yes he was talking to a bunch of college students but still he was talking down to them as if he was inviting himself to be one of them assuming they didn’t know any better,  or for the fact that I didn’t know better as he was speaking to all of us at any given time and assuming that we all have a street background when probably 50 percent of the volunteers had a mixed background and some were assuredly more professional than he was.

    I’m afraid he would have been more professional in his job if he would have taken the time to get involved in the project and provided us with a more needed background of information about why it was important to be there that day, and talk to us as if we had some intelligence and that we were not all street wise. Heck I still have problems figuring out today’s  sign language. Ours was quite simple in my time as it usually amounted to one finger in the middle of your hand straight up, indicating your displeasure with someone or sometimes for the fun of it as if they actually were your “bro” and could handle it, or as I would signal to this guy or should have, at the thought of him being part of my family.