PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA

PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA
Publicity is an effect to make available certain information to the public. According to Association of Teachers of Marketing and Advertising of America, ‘publicity’ is “any form of non-personal presentation of goods, service or ideas to a group; such presentation may be or may not be sponsored only by the one responsible for it and it may or may not be paid for.”
Advertising and Publicity are similar in the following respects:
They convey the information regarding product, service or institution.
They present the information to the audiences impersonally.
Advertising and Publicity differ in the following ways:
Advertising has commercial touch while publicity may or may not have.
Advertising is paid for while publicity may or may not be paid for.
In advertising the sponsor controls the message while in case of publicity it is controlled by the media.
Advertising message commands more or less respect while publicity does.
In advertising the sponsor is known, while in case of publicity he may or may not be known.
If the message is ignored by the audience, it is the advertiser who suffers, while in case of publicity, it is the audience that suffers.
All advertising is publicity but all publicity is not advertising.

Propaganda is the means of gaining support for a given cause or belief or an opinion or an attitude. It is essentially a bias towards a particular view point-good or bad. Propaganda signifies an organized effort to spread a peculiar doctrine, dogma or principle. It is not frank, open and confesses openly in its approach and achievements.
Propaganda differs from advertising in following ways:
Propaganda sends message which is not commercial in nature while in case of advertising it is commercial.
Propaganda achieves its objectives by poisoning the minds of public while advertising is not sinister in its approach.
The identity of a propagandist is not known but in case of advertising it is known.
Propaganda makes no difference between the individuals in sending the message while advertising does.
The claim of propagandists cannot be easily tested while those of advertisers can be tested.
All advertising is propaganda but the vice versa is not true.