Extending PR’s critical conversations with advertising and marketing

Abstract

This chapter initiates a discussion between three growing areas of critical theory: Critical Public Relations, Critical Advertising and Critical Marketing. Whereas Critical PR is only just emerging as an academic field, critical perspectives of advertising and marketing have existed since at least the 1970s. The trajectory of research has also differed; in part because advertising and marketing have often evolved in different university departments; in part, because the scholars who critique advertising and marketing wear their critical hats at different “angles”. The chapter frames advertising, marketing and PR as distinct professional projects, moving directly to the points of tension and overlap in order to discern deeper understandings about public relations' professional project by exploring the struggles of its closest professional neighbours.