Two Camps Fight For the Right To Speak (And Hopefully Listen) Commercially

The other day, I brought up the question of who is best prepared to weave brand narratives in the social space.
Turns out it’s also a popular topic over at PR Squared.
Site host, Todd Defren, writes:

My main thesis is that PR is and has always primarily been about day-to-day relationships, thus is tailor-made for the gruntwork of Social Media, whereas Advertising is more about the paid-for message of a campaign mentality; it’s more about the big splash by its nature. Again, not a BAD thing, just different.

Defren makes a good point on the gruntwork. I also like Doug Winfield’s perspective:

…it takes real creativity to conceptualize, produce and propagate social media campaigns which produce impact and awe. Perhaps the rank and file of current advertising leads aren’t creative enough to imagine how this is possible?

Turns out, Edward Boches of Mullen speaks for the ad guys, sort of.

Hey, who you calling an ad guy ;-). In an era of digital, social, PR, creative, free content, user generated content, crowdsourcing, inbound marketing, viral video, and, yes, blogging, what’s an ad guy anyway?

That’s a solid question. Does one need to make “ads” to be in the club? You would think, but what’s an ad anyway?