What
is publicity?
We define
publicity as a non personal and paid
communication which promotes ideas, goods, or services, which is an
identified promotor.
The first
characteristic of publicity is Communication.
Therefore, there is a Transmitter, a Message, a Means and some Receptors.
Publicity tries to communicate a message using different Means of
Communication.
Publicity
is paid communication.
If a newspaper speaks about our company in an article this is not
publicity. If in a newspaper an article refers to us it is usually
because our company has generated some news.
We differentiate
between Public Relations and Publicity.
One typical activity related to Public Relations is to make sure a
company appears in the media and that it appears in a positive light.
They send press releases and relevant information about a company
to newspapers, radio stations and television channels.
Promoting
ideas, goods or services.
Publicity tries to promote ideas, goods or services and therefore
has the job of taking certain ideas, goods and services to the citizens.
Normally, when someone talks about publicit, they immediately think
about the advertising of products.
Advertising
of Products.
It is true that a large part of publicity concentrates on promoting
products. Advertising cars, detergents or perfumes are good exaples
of product advertising.
In the
modern world services are becoming more and more important. Banks,
hospitals, universities and lawyers all offer their services to society.
As a country's income increases services become more important.
Banks or
credit card organizations like Visa publicize their banks services.
Another
example of service advertising is for example, when telephone company's
advertise their services.
There is
also publcity which tries to promote ideas.
Publicity campaigns which are against tobacco, driving campaigns which
ask drivers to take care on the roads or campaigns against drugs -
these are just a few examples. However, some of the campaigns against
drugs are examples of bad publicity, as sometimes you are not aware
whether the advert is in favour or against drug use. The following
example is a good campaign against drug use.
Identified
promoter. Legally,
in the majority of countries, publicity is different to articles which
appear in newspapers and radio and television programme information.
Citizens have the right to know which information in a newspaper is
meant for advertising purposes. Advertising is carried out by countries
or organizations which are identified as Message Transmitters.
