The distinction between advertising and PR is following: advertising involves paying a medium (TV, radio, newspaper or magazine, for example) for airtime or column inches in which to put across a promotional message. The content of an ad is always controlled by the advertiser, unlike the content of editorial pages or programmes, which are controlled by journalists. Public relation practitioners try to persuade journalists to cover their products and services on the ground of newsworthiness. An ad doesn’t have to satisfy any news value – just has to be legal and paid for.
The Institute of practitioners in Advertising defines advertising as follows: advertising presents the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects for the product or service at the lowest possible cost.
Here, the phrase ‘selling message’ distinguishes the two disciplines – PR aims not to increase sales, but to increase understanding. Sometimes, of course, understanding a product or service improves sales, but PR does not claim a direct casual link.
PR is not a form of advertising and is much bigger than advertising. This is because PR relates to all the communications of the organization and advertising is mainly limited to the marketing function. Advertising may not be used by an organization, but every organization is involved in public relations. Public relations has to do with the total communications of an organization, it is more extensive than advertising. Sometimes PR may use advertising which is why PR is neither a form of advertising nor a part of advertising.
However, there are gray areas:
- Corporate advertising is where an organization purchases space in a paper, magazine or broadcast to put across a general message about itself, not its product. This message might extol its efforts to be green or socially responsible, or it might put the management view in an industrial dispute or takeover. The content of the message is likely to be PR-driven, related to the corporate strategic aims of the organization rather than product support.
- Another gray area is the advertorial, where the space is bought, just like an ad, but is filled with text and images very similar to the surrounding editorial. This is increasingly common in magazines and, although the word ‘advertorial’ is usually clear at the top of the page, it’s in small print and the casual reader may well believe they are reading another article about, say, skincare products. As a result they may believe the text reflects the impartial view of the magazine rather than more interested view of an advertiser. So, the strength of advertorials over advertisements is that their style and format give greater credibility to the products they are advertising, by explaining them in apparently objective terms through a third party, journalist.
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Exercise A. True or False:
1. PR is a form of advertising.
2. PR relates to all the communications of the organization.
3. Advertising is mainly not limited to the marketing function.
4. PR is not free because the money is spent on staff salaries or consultancy fees.
5. An ad must be legal and paid for.
- If a story appears in the news column its value can be counted by advertisement rates.
7. PR is more extensive than advertising.
8. The main aim of PR is to increase sales.
9. The content of an ad is always controlled by the journalist.
10. The content of corporate advertising is likely to be related to product support.
11. Advertorial is the same as editorial.
12. Advertorials are commonly marked.
Exercise B. Find English synonyms in the text.
- means of communication (lines 1-5)
- to induce (lines 1-5)
- on the basis of (lines 1-5)
- potential customer (lines 5-10)
- to praise (lines 20-25)
- merger (lines 20-25)
- institutional advertising (lines 20-25)
- unbiased (lines 25-30)
Exercise C. Give English equivalents.
- эфирное время
- редакционная статья
- освещать (в СМИ)
- новостная ценность
- торговое обращение
- ограничиваться
- переходная зона
- поддерживать движение защитников окружающей среды
- информирующая реклама
- доверие
Exercise D. Match the terms to their definitions.
| 1. Compares specific characteristics of two or more identified brands.
| a) commercial
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| 2. Used to sell a particular brand of product.
| b) comparative advertising
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| 3. The purpose is to increase demand for all brands of a product.
| c) infomercial
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| 4. A program-length commercial message placed on television.
| d) out-of-home advertising
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| 5. Short promotional messages on billboards, posters, signs, and transportation vehicles.
| e) selective-demand advertising
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| 6. An advertisement which is broadcast on television or radio.
| f) primary-demand advertising
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Exercise E. In each numbered line, there is one word which is wrong. Underline the mistake and write the correct word at the end of the line. The first one is an example.
0 A distinct different between PR and advertising is their extent ____ difference
1 of massage control. When, where, and how an advertisement runs _____________
2 is quite controllable. Ad spice purchased in the right format _____________
(i.e. broadcast, radio, print, online, sky writing) means one
3 has inherence control over what messages are communicated. _____________
4 Conversely, while the process of create messages through _____________
5 public relations is controllable, what occurs after the message have _____________
6 left the "nest" is often uncontrollable. The most commonness uncontrollable _____________
7 factor is weather the media view your information as newsworthy. _____________
Exercise F. Problem questions
- Is PR cheaper than advertising?
- Is PR the clever joined-up writing and advertising just the ‘eye candy’?
- What does advertorial do to the credibility of the journalist or the publication in which it appears?
- If there is no intention to mislead the reader into confusing the advertising message with a news or feature report, why not just use an advertisement?
