The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR By: Al Ries & Laura Ries

Book Review: Fall of Advertising Rise of PR 1

The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR By: Al Ries & Laura Ries Book Report 4

Jia Zhao Readings in MCom. Dr.Busby Due: October 16, 2011

Book Review: Fall of Advertising Rise of PR 2 Book Review: The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR

Al Ries and Laura Ries of Ries & Ries, advertising agency, coauthored The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR in 2002. Al Ries serves as Chairman and his daughter Laura Ries is the President. After the book’s release, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR was reviewed by many publications, such as USA Today, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times and Harvard Business Review. It also made The Wall Street Journal and the Business Week bestseller lists.

Al Ries is a legendary marketing strategist and also the bestselling author of 11 books. Including this book, Al and his daughter Laura have written 5 books together, which include  The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding  The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding  The Origin of Brands and War in the Boardroom (“Biography of Al Ries Chairman of Ries & Ries,” n.d.).

In this book, authors used straightforward language and style to explain the main point that advertising is not effective at building brands. However, they believe that PR is now the most effective method. Moreover, authors also cite several examples to support this point. For instance, McDonald’s is the fourth-largest advertising expenditure. However, per unit sales only increased by 1.7 percent, from $1.4 to $1.5 million, proving that “Advertising isn’t doing much to move the Gig Macs at McDonald’s” (Ries, L& Ries, M, 2002, p.59).

Book Review: Fall of Advertising Rise of PR 3 In addition, Al and Laura Ries found that “The weakest link in any advertising program is its credibility” (Ries, L& Ries, M, 2002, p.5). In contrast, PR is a stronger asset because media controls what advertising is run and what is not. As the book authors found that “You can’t force the media to run your message. It’s entirely in their hands. All you can is smile and make sure your publicity material is as helpful as possible” (Ries, L& Ries, M, 2002, p.240).

On the other hand, according to a book review by Michael Morton, in this book, Al and Laura Ries mention that only public relations can fill consumer need to have consumer-oriented, trusted, and unbiased communications. Today, public relations campaigns use many consumeroriented and trusted third parties to improve the image of companies, such as magazines, newspapers, newscasts and, word of mouth.

Also, there are two reasons that advertising effectiveness declines. The first one is the influx in advertising volume, especially after World War II and the advent of television. The second reason is that the advertising industry is losing focus, because advertising personnel are focusing more on winning awards, and advertising companies are spending increasing amounts of money on award entries (Morton, 2006).

However, according to another book review by Andy Marken, public relations and advertising need to work together in order to produce the highest profit and best results for brands. Public relations can create the brand while advertising defends the brand. In addition, company management should know that even if the advertising has weakness in credibility, it

Book Review: Fall of Advertising Rise of PR 4 does not mean it is not useful. Advertising has ascended space to enhance and extend their credibility properly (Marken, n.d.).

Moreover, some critics think this book has poor structure based on the order of the five parts: 

The Fall of Advertising



The Rise of PR



A New Role of Advertising



The Differences Between Advertising and PR



Postscripts (Ries, L& Ries, M, 2002)

Kurniawan Hari’s review found that The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR is primarily concerned with advertising and public relations” and that discussing the difference after 200 pages is too late (Hari, 2009, ¶20).

After reading this book, I believe that the title cannot bring positive emotion to for the advertising industry. The main point of this book is to show that advertising is becoming far less effective, and company management should focus on using public relations techniques to build a good environment, thereby promoting the image of the company.

In my opinion, if readers approach this book with a different angle, it is actually worth the time investing in reading. If the reader is in advertising in a developed country, this book

Book Review: Fall of Advertising Rise of PR 5 would serve as an ideal supplement to training, because it will help find aim and direction in understanding the genuine demands of clients for better intercourse and interchange.

On the other hand, reading this book from that angle can have varying impacts based on the environment. In a developing country like China, the public relations field is just beginning, meaning that this field has even broader prospects for the future. As the book would like read as “The Rise of PR & the Update of Advertising” in that situation.

Advertising personnel in the developing countries should, in fair weather, prepare for foul. People who work in the public relations industry should improve themselves as soon as possible because they will face unprecedented opportunity and challenges in the near future. Therefore, I recommend this book to everyone.

Book Review: Fall of Advertising Rise of PR 6 References

[American Psychological Association Style Manual]

Biography of Al Ries Chairman of Ries & Ries. (n.d.). ries.com. Retrieved from http://www.ries.com/aboutus-alries.php

Hari, K. (May 24, 2009). The fall of advertising and the rise of pr, a review. thejakartapost.com. Retrieved from http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/05/24/the-fall-advertising-andrise-pr-a-review.html

Marken, A. (n.d.). The fall of advertising and the rise of pr. marcommwise.com. Retrieved from http://www.marcommwise.com/bookreviews.phtml?ISBN=0060081988

Morton, M. (March 15, 2006). Book review: The fall of advertising and the rise of pr. marketingmonster.wordpress.com. Retrieved from http://marketingmonster.wordpress.com/2006/03/15/book-review-the-fall-of-advertisingand-the-rise-of-pr/

Ries, A.R., & Ries, L.R. (2006). The fall of advertising and the rise of pr. Harper Paperbacks.