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BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN PR & ADVERTISING
Contact: Susan Matthews Apgood, 301-664-6448
Bethesda, MD - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 —“Guaranteed placement,” a form of advertising, is increasingly coming out of the PR budget, often spent with public relations services firms. In order to ensure media coverage for clients, five out of five PR broadcast services firms surveyed on the web are turning to paying for the placement of stories on television and radio outlets. But what does a guaranteed placement sound or look like and more importantly, does it provide the same value as a true earned media placement?
“There are no guarantees in public relations,” says Susan Matthews Apgood, president of News Generation. “When public relations services firms offer ‘guaranteed placements,’ or claim to have a ‘mutual understanding,’ or a ‘formal agreement,’ with media outlets it means one thing and one thing only: they buy time. That’s not the same as earning it. Information doesn’t air in the program itself, but is separate from the content of the talk show or newscast, as it should be, since it’s an ad.”
In the PRSA code of ethics, it calls for public relations professionals to “accurately define what public relations activities can accomplish.” When a public relations services firm tells a client it can guarantee a certain amount of audience reach, that “guarantee” is not what public relations can deliver, but rather what advertising can.
Even more disturbing is the practice of reporting the “guaranteed placement” alongside earned media, blurring the distinction between the two and giving the impression that both earned and guaranteed media placements are equal in value. “Not only are these practices unethical and unprofessional, but the results of these efforts are less effective,” adds Lynn Harris Medcalf, executive vice president of News Generation.
When service companies buy time on media outlets, the stories end up airing in what sounds like a commercial break in a newscast, not the newscast itself. This placement is a breakaway from the anchor, like any other commercial break the network might do, therefore devaluing the message as earned media. When a story is accepted based on its merit, the story will air within the newscast, making the message more credible since it was evaluated by a reporter that saw the news value.
“That’s why its so important to have a good issue that you’re pitching” says Medcalf. “What is happening in our industry is that weak stories are being accepted by PR services firms, then time is being bought to make up for the fact that the story cannot get placed. It’s hurting all in the practice of public relations when this happens.”
In 2005, the FCC and the PR industry demanded that broadcast companies be transparent about who they represent. PR services companies need to be transparent with their clients. We ask that firms offering services that “guarantee placements” not hide behind the term public relations and call themselves what they are: advertising services firms.
News Generation, Inc. operates under the ethics and values of the public relations profession as spelled out by the PRSA code of ethics. The company does not buy time on radio outlets or pay stations or networks to air clients’ stories. Rather, reporters and producers are individually pitched, and they determine whether to use a story in their newscasts or talk shows based on its newsworthiness.
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