Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing artists), goods

Product (business)

In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...

 and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.

From a marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 perspective, publicity is one component of promotion

Promotion (marketing)

Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix . It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision....

 which is one component of marketing.
The other elements of the promotional mix are advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

, sales promotion

Sales promotion

Sales promotion is one of the four aspects of promotional mix. Media and non-media marketing communication are employed for a pre-determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability...

, direct marketing and personal selling

Sales

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....

. Promotion

Promotion (marketing)

Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix . It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision....

But the publicist cannot wait around for the news to present opportunities. They must also try to create their own news. Examples of this include:

• Art exhibitions
• Event sponsorship
• Arrange a speech or talk
• Make an analysis or prediction
• Conduct a poll or survey
• Issue a report
• Take a stand on a controversial subject
• Arrange for a testimonial
• Announce an appointment
• Invent then present an award
• Stage a debate
• Organize a tour of your business or projects
• Issue a commendation

The advantages of publicity are low cost, and credibility (particularly if the publicity is aired in between news stories like on evening TV news casts). New technologies such as weblogs, web cameras, web affiliates, and convergence (phone-camera posting of pictures and videos to websites) are changing the cost-structure. The disadvantages are lack of control over how your releases will be used, and frustration over the low percentage of releases that are taken up by the media.

Publicity draws on several key themes including birth, love, and death. These are of particular interest because they are themes in human lives which feature heavily throughout life. In television serials several couples have emerged during crucial ratings and important publicity times, as a way to make constant headlines. Also known as a publicity stunt

Publicity stunt

A publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs...

, the pairings may or may not be according to the fact.

Publicists

A publicist

Publicist

A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...

 is a person whose job

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

 is to generate and manage publicity for a product, public figure, especially a celebrity

Celebrity

A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

, or for a work such as a book

Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

 or movie

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 or band. Publicists usually work at large companies handling multiple client

Consumer

Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...

s.

Effectiveness of Publicity

The theory, Any press is good press, has been coined to describe situations where bad behaviour by people involved with an organization or brand has actually resulted in positive results, due to the fame and press coverage accrued by such events.

One example would be the Australian Tourism Board's "So where the bloody hell are you?

So where the bloody hell are you?

So where the bloody hell are you? is a A$180 million advertising campaign launched in 2006 by Tourism Australia created by the Sydney office of the London advertising agency M&C Saatchi....

" advertising campaign that was initially banned in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, but the amount of publicity this generated resulted in the official website for the campaign being swamped with requests to see the banned ad.

The popular sitcom, Married... with Children

Married... with Children

Married... with Children is an American surrealistic sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created...

, achieved skyrocketing ratings after activist Terry Rakolta

Terry Rakolta

Terry Rakolta led a boycott against the Fox Broadcasting Company sitcom Married... with Children.A Mother Is Heard as Sponsors Abandon a TV Hit New York Times Born Terry Lynn Stern, she is the sister of Ronna Romney, former daughter-in-law of former Michigan governor George Romney. Rakolta's...

petitioned sponsors to withdraw their support from the program.