The article highlights the key aspects of a PR campaign, including its definition, stages, aims and classification. A PR campaign is considered as an object of study within the framework of a training course in Russian higher education institutions. Since the theoretical part of public relations is based on the foreign model, and higher education mainly implies working under the conditions of the Russian reality, the aim of this research is to show the necessity to integrate into the training course the theoretical and practical material which would the particularities of cultural, economic, political and social spheres in Russia. In addition, the article indicates the necessity to cooperate advertising and PR activities in order to achieve the best results. The topicality of this research lies in the fact that the notion of a PR campaign is analysed in close connection with the Russian reality. The methods used in this work include analytical, analogy and classification methods. The presented conclusions may be used in pedagogy, advertising and public relations.