卫生类B级：阅读理解Characteristics
Publicity offers several benefits. There are not costs for message time or
space. An ad in prime-time television may cost $250，000 to $5000，000 or more per
minute， whereas a five-minute report on a network newscast would not cost
anything. However， there are costs for news releases， a publicity department，
and other items. As with advertising， publicity reaches a mass audience. Within
a short time， new products or company policies are widely known.
Credibility about messages is high， because they are reported in
independent media. A newspaper review of a movie has more believability than an
ad in the same paper， because the reader associates independence with
objectivity. Similarly， people are more likely to pay attention to news reports
than to ads. For example， Womens Wear Daily has both fashion reports and
advertisements. Readers spend time reading the stories， but they flip through
the ads. Furthermore， there may be 10 commercials during a half-hour television
program or hundreds of ads in a magazine. Feature stories are much fewer in
number and stand out clearly.
Publicity also has some significant limitations. A firm has little control
over messages， their timing， their placement， or their coverage by a given
medium. It may issue detailed news releases and find only portions cited by the
media， and media have the ability to be much more critical than a company would
like.
For example， in 1982， Procter & Gamble faced a substantial publicity
problem over the meaning of its 123-year-old company logo. A few ministers and
other private citizens believed resulted in the firm receiving 15，000 phone
calls about the rumor in June alone. To combat this negative publicity， the firm
issued news releases featuring prominent clergy that refuted the rumors，
threatened to sue those people spreading the stories， and had a spokesperson
appear on Good Morning America. The media cooperated with the company and the
false rumors were temporarily put to rest. However， in 1985， negative publicity
became so disruptive that Procter & Gamble decided to remove the logo from
its-products.
A firm may want publicity during certain periods， such as when a new
product is introduced or new store opened， but the media may not cover the
introduction or opening until after the time it would aid the firm. Similarly，
media determine the placement of a story; it may follow a report on crime or
sports. Finally， the media ascertain whether to cover a story at all and the
amount of coverage to be devoted to it. A company-sponsored fobs program might
go unreported or receive three-sentence coverage in a local newspaper.