Is Advertsing better at PR than PR?

PR awards are much sought after by agencies.  They are meant to show off the talent an agency has.  So it’s perhaps surprising that TBWA/Chiat/Day (an advertising agency) should win the PR award at the Cannes Lions.  The campaign was a great idea: Create a rematch for two high school football teams who  have one of the longest on-going rivalries in the USA and who played to a 7-7 tie on Thanksgiving Day in 1993 (see video here).  In other words it was a classic PR stunt.  Except it was apparently created by an Ad agency.  This proves once again that what really matters is a great idea, and a client that is smart enough to embrace that idea, not what kind of agency created it.  Watch out PR agencies, the advertising world is on our turf.  Of course we can also go play on theirs…