The fall of advertising and the rise of PR published March 02 Advertising, increasingly under scrutiny for its role in today’s marketing environment which is both fractionated and cynical, is soon to get the treatment again.  And this time it’s at the hands of PR. American Al Ries, the ‘disciple of positioning’ who made companies and their strategists take notice well over a decade ago, is reportedly about to publish a co-authored book called ‘The Fall of Advertising and The Rise of PR’. Ries apparently plans to have the book published by June.  The draft of the book was reviewed by O’Dwyer, a New York public relations publisher, who quotes it as saying: As a brand building tool advertising is dead.  But it does have a second life as a brand maintenance tool, once the brand has been built by PR. No matter how creative the ad, no matter how appropriate the medium, there is just no way around the issue of credibility. What builds brands are media messages.  The more messages, the more favourable the messages, the stronger the brand. The one thing that PR offers is credibility.  People believe what they read in newspapers or magazines or what they hear on radio and tv. However the book does acknowledge there are some disadvantages to PR: You can’t control the content. You can’t control the timing. You can’t control the visual appearance of your message. O’Dywer says the book uses the example of the US$1billion Microsoft spent to launch their Windows XP operating system.  The authors claim people will not make their decision to upgrade based on what they see in the ads, they will mostly decide based on what is written or said in the media. The authors credit the PR, not advertising, for the marketing successes of Starbucks, The Body Shop, Viagra and Harry Potter. The book is sure to create plenty of debate when it hits the shelves later in the year.

PR Influences Australian Public Relations Newsletter. Article: The fall of advertising and the rise of public relations. Information Content: Marketing, Book Reviews & Information