There was a time when advertising alone put a brand on the map. About 50 years ago, Americans were driving big cars and IBM had just launched its “Think Big” campaign, when a new agency, Doyle, Dane, Bernbach, introduced the Volkswagen beetle to America with the headline, “Think Small.”

Not just Volkswagen, of course, but hundreds of other brands became successful because of advertising. Timex, with retired NBC News anchor John Cameron Swayze, showed its watches run over by trains or dropped from airplanes and announced, “It takes a licking, and keeps on ticking.” People believed it and Timex took off.

Dozens of restaurant advertising slogans passed into everyday language, from “Breakfast of champions” to “The Big Mac Attack” and “Have it your way.” Restaurant advertisements that we would call “great” made up only a small percentage of total advertising - getting something new and unusual past the consumer was always a tough sell - the restaurant advertising revolution continued into the 1980’s. Agencies competed to outshine each other with attention-getting wit based on what Rosser Reeves, the founder of today’s mega agency, Ted Bates, called the Unique Selling Proposition.

Then, something happened. Let’s fast-forward to today, when restaurant ads we’d call “great” are not only scarcer than hen’s teeth, but amateurish to boot. If you’ve leafed through a Newsweek or Time in the past month, can you recall any ads? How many times do you see a commercial on TV where you don’t know what they’re selling? So much for the Unique Selling Proposition. And often, you’re not even sure whose ad it was. So much for branding. Whether restaurant advertising stopped attracting the brightest and the best, fell asleep resting on its laurels, or market forces simply dampened people’s enthusiasm for it, the fact remains, that restaurant advertising is just not working like it used to.

Taking the place of restaurant advertising, in efforts to garner brand recognition, is public relations. Today’s public relations is not what it used to be, either. Even if some public relations firms may still rely on the stodgy, stiff press release of yesterday, to the new wave of public relations consultants, PR is much more.

Let’s say that today’s PR, particularly for restaurants, is “interactive.”

This is the era of events. Events such as a restaurant grand opening become must-attend events that no one wants to miss.  When frogs parachute from the sky, as they did to mark the grand opening of Grupo Anderson’s Senor Frog’s in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, people were talking. Events aren’t limited to grand openings either. Events can be staged to attract news coverage and publicity, as long as it’s carefully linked to tactics planned in the restaurant marketing plan, the event should maintain newsworthy value.

Then there is the bread and butter of the restaurant PR business, the press release. It has become interactive, too.

We don’t look at a press release as an announcement written AP style, ready for the editor to whittle down to one paragraph. AP style is fine, but what we try to do is make a story people want to read and make the client part of it.

Having taken a firm position on the dissolution of restaurant advertising and advocating, as we do, restaurant public relations as the most effective way to promote a restaurant, we don’t turn our backs on restaurant advertising completely.

No one would disagree that an outdoor sign is an important means of guiding transient traffic off the interstate and into a Cracker Barrel, or that McDonald's finds great media efficiency with their 30,000+ restaurants. However, if you're in any way a unique concept- and in today’s competitive environment you better be to stay alive - then you need to leverage your story and uniqueness. You also need to connect with your audience in a real and personal way. Restaurant advertising simply can't do it.

It is important to keep in mind: whatever it is, no matter how small you think the news about your restaurant may be, it can always be turned into a story the local press will be glad to carry. Often, it can also be made attractive to the regional and national media too. And remember, the more famous you become, the more they'll write about you. Restaurant PR gains momentum on a constant budget, restaurant advertising does not.

If you contact me, I’ll be happy to fill you in on the cost-effectiveness of restaurant public relations vs. restaurant advertising and share with you case studies on how our style of public relations has made a big difference in the bottom line for specific clients.

We are convinced, through these tested and proven tactics, that restaurant public relations is the answer to the growth of the restaurant business in today’s market.