Advertising or Public Relations--?

Question

I am thinking about going into one of these fields. I'll probably major in one of them, and minor in the other. Please give any insight you know about these majors.

Please give any description of the majors and their requirements too.

Thanks.

Answer 1

To make a choice it is important to examine their strength and weakness.

From the academic angle, Public Relations is broader in scope. It has many components: media relations, lobbying, corporate social responsibility, event management, in-house publications, public speaking and reputation management. It is hidden persuader. Most news stories and editorial contents are influenced by PR.

On the other hand, advertising is more like marketing. It is payment of fixed fee to sell a products, organisation or individual. Apart from creativity in scripting for advert placement, its scope is narrow. Sponsors of advertisement are identifiable in the media.

While it easy to be an advertiser by merely buying a space in the media, PR is more challenging as it involves innovation, creativity, effective writing skills, ability to speak in public in competitive strategies to win support and patronage through favourable and fair mentions in the media.

Finally, you may wish to note PR people work as consultants and also as in-house staff of organisations (public, Private and NGO). Advert- practitioners hardly have similar acceptability but they are successful as consultants and agent.

The two fields are presently tagged under Intergrated Marketing communication (IMC)