Have you read
The 22 Immutable Laws Of Branding? Or
The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing? Both by the same author. If you've read those, then you don't need to read this book, which is essentially the same argument, but without all the wise advice. Actually, even if you haven't read them, you don't need to read this book: buy either one of them instead.
The problem with this one is that Ries and Ries have a really good point to make, but they make it in the introduction and then just keep repeating it right the way through the book. They also make this point as one of the 22 immutable laws in both of the other books. Ries and Ries are great when they are handing out pithy, useful advice with just a couple of resonant examples. Ries and Ries on a soap box just get tedious.
The other problem with this book is that the authors have not really taken the trouble to understand PR -- only to understand what it can do for your marketing campaign. But PR isn't just a branch of marketing (though, in most commercial organisations, the PR _function_ is part of the marketing department), and the authors don't do justice to their title.
Before I read it, I actually thought this was going to be about the rise of PR as epitomised by New Labour in the late 90s, and the fall of advertising as epitomised by the end of the Saatchi dominance of political advertising. I was also expecting Greenpeace's use of Video News Releases (and their subsequent fall), and the growth of internet PR to be covered. But they aren't. This book should really be called: The Rise of PR in branding and the fall of advertising. It doesn't cover lobbying, public affairs, media crises, or any of the things the title would lead you to believe.
The other, other problem with this book is that all the criticisms it makes -- which are largely of big budget TV ads -- were already made, more succinctly, by David Ogilvy in
Ogilvy on Advertising, way back in 1983.
The other, other, other problem is that the case is nowhere near as clear cut as the authors would have you believe. True, PR has advanced strongly into advertising's territory -- but it's also advanced into marketing's territory as well, as a strategic discipline rather than just 'free advertising'. But look at the way Ronseal built its brand with "It does exactly what it says on the tin", all done with one simple TV ad: advertising still has some serious mileage, after all. And can you imagine Ronseal's PR achieving the same effect without the ad? I don't think so.
Of course, Ries has now written the forward to
The Fall of PR & the Rise of Advertising. I haven't read it yet, and maybe I won't: there comes a point in life when you have to take a nuanced view and say that, in their own domains, both advertising and PR can make a valuable contribution.
