Public Relation and Advertising

Public relation (PR) is active managing of communication of an organization or business to create and maintain a positive image. Public relation involves popularizing successes, downplaying failures, announcing changes, and many other activities. The term Public Relations was first used by the US President Thomas Jefferson during his address to Congress in 1807. Today “Public Relation is a set of management, supervisory, and technical functions that foster an organization’s ability to strategically listen to, appreciate, and respond to those persons whose mutually beneficial relationships with the organization are necessary if it is to achieve its missions and values.” (Robert L. Heath, Encyclopedia of Public Relation). Essentially it is a management function that focuses on two-way communication and fostering of mutually beneficial relationship between an organization and its publics. But in the other ways, people have many different definitions of what we mean when we say “public relations”. There is no best answers or single definition for public relations. Form organizations and businesses to speaker and authors to everyday men and women, the definition of public relations will vary. While advertising is paid, one-way communication through a medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled. Variations included publicity, public relations, product placement, sponsorship, underwriting, and sales promotion. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and billboards. Advertisements can also be seen on the seats of grocery carts, on the walls of an airport walkway, on the sides of buses, heard in telephone hold messages and in-store public address systems. Advertisements are usually placed anywhere an audience can easily and/or frequently access visuals and/or audio, especially on clothing. Advertising clients are predominantly, but not