You may call it “cynical”… I’ve been staff for 21 years; I call it realistic. Hells bells! There are stacks of inappropriate badges out there. Badges in the wrong colours, badges with the wrong crowns, badges with laurels, badges with the wrong font, badges with copyright images, badges with inappropriate images, badges with ridiculous mottos…
This may come as a surprise to some, but there are lots of staff in the Corps who don’t know or don’t really care about such regulations, and just intend to do their own thing.
The number of times we hear “it’s our Squadron motto”, “our Squadron crest”, “our Squadron colours”. Some people latch onto things despite them being inappropriate, and intend on retaining them on some misguided idea of “tradition”.
In just the same way that many OCs introduce all sorts of other unauthorised oddities like flight tabs, sashes, arm bands, special belts for Duty NCO…
Cynical!? Have you been in the Corps long?
Sometimes one can get away with dealing with “bad eggs” on their own. But when it comes to something which, if automatically published on the main website, could cause embarrassment, offence, or get the Corps sued, we can’t afford to. A simple approval is a very sensible precaution.
Where else would content go out to a primary public channel without some form of approval?