Public Relations vs. Advertising

1. Public Relations vs Advertising The term Public Relations (PR) is often confused with advertising and is thought to be the same. Often ?oth go ha?d i? ha?d, ?ut that does?’t ?ea? that they are sy?o?y?ous. Both are ?o?pletely differe?t in terms of goals and overall effects. While advertising involves exposing the product or services of a company to the audience, on the other hand pr is all about creating a good reputation of the company and persuading the target audience through different media channels. Newspaper articles or TV reports have a completely different impact on the public as compared to the ads. Advertisements have a clear motive of sales maximization by persuading people to buy a particular produ?t or ser?i?es, a?d that’s ?hy the i?for?atio? ?o??u?i?ated ?y the? is per?ei?ed ?ith a ?ertai? degree of skepticism. The colorful and catchy formats of ads at ti?es distur? the audie??e as it does?’t match the format of the media channel on which it appears. On the other hand, when they are communicated news about a new product or services through a third party in their own format (for example, newspaper or online articles and TV reports) the public perceive it to be informative and attention-worthy as it has a third- party ?alidatio? ?ith it. As per a? old sayi?g, ?ad?ertisi?g is ?he? you talk about how great you are. PR is ?he? other people say ho? great you are.? Advertising gives a view of how the company wants the consumer to think about their product/services. On the contrary, Public Relations executives understand and precisely examine the working of the company. And, with their unique way of story-telli?g, pro?ide the audie??e ?ith their ?lie?t’s solutio? (i.e., a new type of equipment designed for fitness of pre-teens by) for a perceived problem (i.e childhood obesity).

2. In advertising, the advertiser has full control over the ad. As they have bought the space from the media channel, they are free to publish their content in their format without any further changes from the media spaces. As opposed to this, PR agencies can pitch the story but has no control over how media uses it or does not use at all. In the case of Public Relations, the story is pitched only once, but in case of advertising, the ad is published or aired as long as the advertiser is willing to pay for. But given that press releases attract publicity which usually achieves greater impact on target audience there is no use of repetition as in the case of advertising.