Book Review: Advertising and Public Relations by Shekhar Verma

If you have a minimal understanding of advertising and public relations, this is the book you should pick. It distinguishes and explains interchangeable words like advertising, marketing, public relations, sales, promotion, and publicity in a detailed manner. It briefs you regarding the history of advertising, learnings from advertising gurus, public relations, consumer behaviour, billboards, and media relations. It states many case studies and has quotes from famous marketers and PR professionals, which makes it an interesting read.

The author's descriptive writing makes it an excellent read for beginners in the PR or advertising field. This book helps you dive deeper into the advertising and public relations field. The other quality that makes it stand out is its relevancy even after 12 years. In the last chapter, Public Relations and Media Relations, the author mentioned a quote from a PR professional, "Celebs need to realise that they may be financially and socially in a different league from their mundane fans and followers in real life, but Twitter is a great leveller. Here everybody is worth just 140 characters. Leave your ego at home or you will reveal a glimpse that you don't want to be a part of your brand image." In 2023, Twitter's name is X, and the character limit is 280, but tweets still have the power to destroy someone's image.

While the book is a solid 8 out of 10, there will be moments you will feel the author has dragged a topic unnecessarily long. Since it is very descriptive, readers might find themselves bombarded with information. It can also be monotonous at times. There's also casual sexism in the book. The author talks greatly about a male actor's efforts in an ad. But in the next sentence, he dismisses the work of female actors by reducing their worth to just being "beautiful" and "cute" in the ads. It was understandable to some extent since most ads marketed their products by sexualising actresses. But what I didn't like was while talking about Preity Zinta's ad, the author said, "The actress has started looking old and needs to take a break from the film industry." The book and the author are brilliant, but this threw me off. I had to shut the book and take a deep breath. But I realise this book is a product of its time. Sadly, sexism was pervasive throughout the 2010s, acting as a common plague on society.

The tonality of the book is professional and descriptive. You will learn a lot. It does get repetitive, but as a person who is extremely passionate about learning advertising and PR, I would highly recommend it. Whether you're a student or a professional in this field, the book's in-depth explanation and insights will sharpen your skills and improve your understanding of this subject. Even if you are someone who has nothing to do with this field, you will find this book a good read.