Trust or attention - tensions between science communication and public relations. The quest for public attention by economic and political organizations emerged in the 1950s and has intensified ever since. For science, i.e. universities and research centers it was triggered with new public management and the creation of artificial markets for higher education institutions (HEIs). Its impact is now evident in the growth of communication units whose mission goes beyond the announcement of press releases. However, for these institutions the practice of persuasive communication (marketing, branding, public relations) conflicts potentially but increasingly also in reality with the autonomy of science (and the freedom of science as guaranteed in some countries' constitution), with rules of good scientific practice and with orienting values of science such as 'organized skepticism'. While it has to be acknowledged that universities and individual scientists have to adapt to new environments to compete for and legitimate public funds that does not mean that it has to be done with the same means used by commercial and political organizations. Mostly the publics to which their communications are addressed are imagined, the effects are rarely evaluated seriously. Thus the effort remains self-referential. But that does not mean that it remains without side-effects. The overall phenomenon is one of the medialization of science. Some collateral damage has become visible, for example, with the discussion over communication guidelines by the University of Bern or, more dramatically, with the scandal caused by the premature announcement of a blood-test by the University of Heidelberg. It is attempted to indicate some solutions to the problem.