Cannes Lions, founded as an advertising competition in 1954, is now looking to represent the entire communications industry.
Lord Bell, chairman of Chime Communications, will be jury president for the new PR category. He said: 'This recognises that there is a lot of money invested by the marketing community not just in advertising, but in PR and other disciplines.'
The festival runs from 22 to 27 June 2009. The new PR categories will be divided into sector-related PR, product and service, and technique.
The deadline for the competition, which is open to in-house PR teams and agencies, is 13 March.