Is Guaranteed Publicity Ethical?
Search Google for "guaranteed publicity" and you'll find PR firms making claims like "Guaranteed PR coverage is not only unethical, it can even be illegal," or "paid coverage doesn't last as long as earned coverage" and so forth.
And yet here at Canvas PR, we offer guaranteed publicity. Why would we offer a guarantee on our PR services if it's unethical and doesn't work long term? Are we unconcerned about ethics? Are we just in it for a quick buck?
What They Say About Guaranteed Publicity
If you dig into the articles that claim that guaranteed publicity is wrong, bad, and peak wickedness not seen upon the earth since Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, they often contain points we agree with. For example, one blog post says, "Paying a journalist under the table to write about a company or a product is the signal of an inexperienced, desperate, or unethical PR agency." Another blog post states, "When a brand or PR representative pays a rogue news media contributor to publish content under the guise that it is earned media, they are engaged in payola."
We agree 100%, which is why we don't pay journalists or publications to get PR for our clients.
However, we disagree with statements like, "Authentic 'earned media' should be the aim of PR but coverage should never be guaranteed."
Why shouldn't it?
The blog post being referenced goes on to list reasons why, when a PR firm pitches an article, it might not get published. It reads like a list of excuses. "Sorry, there were unexpected events," and "It was a political decision to not publish your article," and "Sometimes journalists are incompetent." The same blog post then says towards the end, "If a piece of 'earned media' doesn't work out, then a good PR firm will figure out how to rectify it!"
That sounds like a guarantee, doesn't it?
Yet another PR blog post asks, "Can you have guaranteed earned media coverage?" and then answers, "No, you cannot have guaranteed earned media coverage." The author claims that "Having a 'guaranteed' story would be ignoring what a journalist's audience wants, which would harm their reputation, so there's a good reason why journalists and other media contacts don't do guaranteed stories."
Why would you have to ignore what a journalist's audience wants in order to guarantee a client a placement? If you were offering a guarantee, wouldn't paying strict attention to what a journalist wants be the best way to fulfill it?
Another PR blog puts it succinctly, "The only way to guarantee coverage is to pay for it."
This simply isn't true.
How Guaranteed Publicity Works
The way our guaranteed publicity services at Canvas PR work is quite simple:
You tell us what publication you want to be in. Let's say it's Forbes.
We learn about you and your business, your goals, and the story you're trying to tell.
We approach Forbes writers we've built real relationships with and ask them what kind of story would resonate with their audience. We brainstorm angles together.
We bring those angles back to you: "Here are a few directions a Forbes writer is genuinely interested in. Which one fits your goals?"
You pick one (or we go back and iterate).
The article gets written and you review it for accuracy before it's published.
The writer publishes it.
Does this work every time without a hitch? Not always. Editors change things. Writers shift priorities. But that's exactly why the guarantee exists. If we don't deliver, we keep working until we do. If we haven't placed the article within 90 days, you can ask for a full refund. We deliver or you don't pay.
We can make that guarantee because we've built relationships with writers at 200-plus publications and we've done this enough times to know what works.
There's one more reason this matters now more than ever. When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity "who's the top executive coach in the country" or "best PR firm for tech startups," those AI tools pull from sources they consider credible. A Forbes article about you is one of those sources. Guaranteed earned media isn't just about your reputation with human readers anymore. It shapes how AI describes you.
Do we care about ethics? As much as anyone, probably more.
Do we get our clients earned media? Every placement is full editorial content. No advertorials, no Forbes Council posts, nothing paid.
So why do so many people say you can't guarantee publicity? Honestly, I think most PR firms say that because they can't. We can, so we do.
