Publicity is the movement of information with the effect of increasing public awareness of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing artists), goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.

Publicity is gaining public visibility or awareness for a product, service or your company via the media. It is the publicist that carries out publicity, while PR is the strategic management function that helps an organization communicate, establish and maintain communication with the public. This can be done internally, without the use of media.

From a marketing perspective, publicity is one component of promotion which is one component of marketing. The other elements of the promotional mix are advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing and personal selling. Examples of promotional tactics include:

"Publicity" is the twelfth episode of the American television series, Smash. The episode aired on April 23, 2012.

Plot

Derek (Jack Davenport) tells Karen (Katharine McPhee) he wishes she was Marilyn; Ellis (Jaime Cepero) overhears and tells Rebecca's (Uma Thurman) assistant, Randall. Rebecca makes Karen her new best friend, taking her out to party and giving her expensive clothes. The tabloids declare Karen to be Rebecca's new lover, and Dev (Raza Jaffrey) gets angry. When Karen takes Rebecca to dinner to meet Dev, Dev and Rebecca start arguing over which one is harmful to Karen.

Julia (Debra Messing) and Frank (Brian d'Arcy James) can't find Leo (Emory Cohen), each thinking Leo is with the other. Eventually, Julia drags it out of Leo's friend, Mason (Hunter Gallagher), that Leo has been sleeping on Mason's floor in order to get away from the crisis at home. Julia and Frank are able to start mending the wounds from Julia's affair.

Rebecca continues to vie for power in the company, leading to unprofessional behavior like arriving late and having the stage manager make her special smoothies; Derek is forced to retake control of his rehearsal room. Ellis and Ivy (Megan Hilty) conspire to give Ivy a chance to sing Karen's song 'Secondhand White Baby Grand'.