A new group on campus is attempting to spread the message of cooperation, and bring home a national prize while doing it. Six public relations students at LSU have formed what they call The Cooperation Party.
“The Cooperation Party is a civil movement focused on increasing civility and public discourse among Americans,” said Creative Director Gabie DeBruler. “We really just want people to have better conversations with one another especially online.”
The Cooperation Party Founding Members. From Left to Right: Mary Coll, Natalie Marse, Gabie DeBruler, Jordan Klemm, Maddie Ybarzabal and Caylee Deshotel.
The Cooperation Party was formed as an entry in a national public relations competition, that LSU PR students won back in 2018.
“The Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) hosts an annual competition called the Bateman Case Study Competition. This year the topic is all about reversing the corrosion of civility in society,” said Team Captain and Account Executive Caylee Deshotel.
“Every team and university competing creates a full public relations campaign, you can really go anywhere with it and that’s where we decided to make The Cooperation Party,” Deshotel said.
So far, the team has been focused on getting the word out to the LSU community by speaking to classes and getting feedback from them by holding focus groups.
“We held a focus group, we actually held two, one was in person and one was on zoom. This was actually before the campaign started we did it to gain ideas and just get feedback from people,” said Project Manager Maddie Ybarzabal.
“We had different ages, mostly college students, and it was really good we got a lot of feedback and insight,” Ybarzabal said.
The team has also worked on community outreach by writing letters to local politicians to gain support. The Cooperation Party’s main campaign goal right now is to get LSU students involved, which they can do on the party’s website.
“To join The Cooperation Party all you have to do is fill out the form on our website,” Deshotel said.
“It just asks for your first name, your last name and your email address. That puts you into our system, and we’ll send periodic emails about events and other opportunities to learn about restoring civility,” she explained.
Each team will have a month to execute their campaigns and three finalists will be chosen to present their work to a panel of judges in May. The winning team will then be recognized at PRSSA’s 2021 International Conference.
You can follow The Cooperation Party on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at @thecooperationparty and visit their website.
