PR vs Advertising

Im sure this is an ongoing debate in many peoples minds, especially during these economic times.

Being in the PR industry myself, I find myself constantly defending the weight Public Relations has versus Advertising.

Before I go any further, please note, this is not an attack on Advertising nor PR! I just think PR input needs to get a little more credit than what it’s currently getting.

During these economic times I find that large companies need to cut costs and where do they cut costs? PR, Marketing and Advertising. Why is this? Then it filters down even more, the PR budget gets cut, now this I completely fail to understand as Advertising costs more than what PR does. Im generalising when I say this but we all know advertising is paid for and therefore advertisers can say what they want, because they are paying for it, whereas in PR, only if what you are offering is newsworthy will it be used. Does this not mean more?

Then, on the flipside, I would think that because of these economic times companies would rely more on Public Relations because of the value it can bring and because it’s more cost effective than Advertising, I have yet to see this happen.

In saying this, I do believe that output of both PR and Advertising working together could be great and powerful.