Advertising

Types of Public Relations Advertising

Public relations advertising takes several forms.

Institutional advertising promotes an organization (versus a product or service) and typically is used to announce a new corporate identity, to attract investors, to enhance an organization's reputation, or to reach out to local communities by promoting the sponsor as a good citizen engaged in social concerns, such as the environment.

Financial advertising is used by for-profit corporations to announce new financial developments. Securities underwriters routinely publish simple tombstone ads when new securities are offered for a client. These ads are published as a matter of public record and a form of reputation enhancement, not as an offer to sell or a solicitation to purchase securities (which requires receipt of a prospectus). Many firms try to attract and reinforce investor interest and to broaden their shareholder base through ads that tout their financial performance. Other financial ads are used in contested tender offers, where proponents or opponents of an acquisition urge shareholders to either sell or not sell their shares to the acquirer. Minority shareholders and activists also use advertising to sway shareholder votes in proxy fights or other actionable agenda items at corporate annual meetings.

Issues advertising enables an organization to speak on an important social problem, situation, or issue in which it has a stake. Advocacy advertising is being used with increased frequency as part of issues management programs to sway public opinion on social issues. In recent years, for example, there's been a sharp increase in commercials airing in Washington, D.C., devoted to pending legislation. These commercial spots target members of Congress and their staffs as well as government officials, lobbyists, and other political advocates. Issue ads also can be run as part of government relations programs: to influence voters in local ballot measures, referenda, and initiatives; and to reach congressmen, state legislators, and local officials when votes are pending on important legislation.

Political advertising is used to lend support to political candidates that a sponsoring organization supports (or to undermine or attack a candidate they oppose). Such independent expenditures are permissible on an unchecked basis following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (558 U.S. 310).

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