This month the men of Environics Communications braved the streets to raise awareness – and funds – for the White Ribbon Campaign: the world’s largest effort of men working to end violence against women. On October 1st they participated in Walk a Mile in her Shoes (WAMIHS); an event during which they walked one full mile in women’s shoes through the heart of Toronto’s business district (see photo).

As a pro-bono partner for this event, ECI also provided public-relations support for WAMIHS; as a member of the White Ribbon Campaign PR team I can say that this was an absolutely incredible project to work on. The passion this campaign has for their cause is contagious and it’s really fulfilling as a public-relations professional to give back to the community. I am very proud to work for a company that supports causes such as this one.

But I digress. As much as I would be entirely capable of making this into a love-fest for the White Ribbon Campaign and ECI, that is not the reason I started writing this post. I have another point to make. I want to share a key learning I garnered as a result of working on this project: that even the very best “good news” stories have adversaries. And as PR professionals, we have to prepare for them.

One would think that wanting to end violence against women would be met with universal encouragement from the community at large. And while an overwhelming amount of support was certainly felt, there were still people out there who expressed antagonism towards the cause.

I will not use this blog to shed a light on their closed-minded views by telling you specifically what their issues were. And I will also not use this blog to elaborate on my opinion regarding such people. This is, of course, a company publication and I would imagine that profanities would not be viewed in a positive light by my employer.

So my point is this (and, yes, I am borrowing the Boy Scouts’ motto): be prepared. You never know what resistance is going to come out of the woodwork, no matter how positive your story. Even if you were running a campaign for world peace, you’d still find a few nutters who were opposed.