Complementary or contradictory

Public relations and advertising seem to have similar aims. As a result, there is a perception in the market that they compete with or replace one another — that one is better than the other or, worse, that they are somehow the same — that PR is advertising in sheep’s clothing or a cheap form of promotion. This misperception persists, particularly in underdeveloped markets. In the developed world the practice of public relations was given a place at the adults’ table some time ago, to a large extent on the strength of its evolution into a diverse and sophisticated set of practices – public policy communications, social impact campaigns, lobbying, government relations, crisis and issues management and now social media.  In the Middle East and much of the developing world these misperceptions are entrenched because PR emerged from advertising. One of the early pioneers of the Middle East PR industry