The mayor has totally got to get one of these

You know how in Gotham City when Commissioner Gordon’s in a jam, he shines that giant bat signal in the sky to summon Batman? (Luckily trouble never strikes during daylight hours).

Well, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is doing something kind of like that today.

Here’s a bulletin just issued on behalf of hizzoner:

“The Mayor’s Office is looking for any celebs/artists to stand with Mayor Kasim Reed today at 2:30pm at a Back-to-School Pep Rally at Jean Childs Young Middle School, 3116 Benjamin E. Mays Drive SW, Atlanta GA 30311.”

Kasim Reed and Jay-Z during the rapper's recent visit

If your famous self is interested, here’s what they need from you:

“The celeb/artist would need to attend for an hour (2:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.) and give a 2-3 minute pep talk to encourage kids to work hard this school year.”

Come on, how hard is that?

If your arm needs any more twisting, the call for celebs dangles this tantalizing carrot: “Press will be in attendance.”

Reed surely has a few chits he can call in, having appeared with many prominent people in the past. Here’s an article about him hanging with Jay-Z when the rapper came to town, possibly to talk about opening a club at the airport.

And just the other day, Reed appeared with Tyler Perry at the Atlanta Urban Entrepreneurship Forum. The mayor presented Perry with a proclamation and floated the idea of renaming Greenbriar Parkway to Tyler Perry Parkway. Here’s that story.

Reed’s not unique in looking to star power to inspire young people, of course. The highly acclaimed Ron Clark Academy in southwest Atlanta welcomed its benefactor Oprah Winfrey to its 2010 graduation ceremony. Here’s a link to that story. And the RCA students’ election-themed song, using the melody of T.I.’s “However You Like,” was a 2008 viral hit. Here’s a clip of them performing on CNN – almost 3 million hits!

So if you’re sufficiently prominent and want to lend an hour of your time to inspire Atlanta’s kids to do their best this year, call 404-330-6023 or e-mail ABoone@AtlantaGa.Gov.

- Jennifer Brett/The Buzz/jbrett@ajc.com