Paternal figure given a bit of publicity (3)
I believe the answer is:
dad
'paternal figure' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'a bit of publicity' is the wordplay.
'a bit of' becomes 'd' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'publicity' becomes 'ad' (short for advert).
'd'+'ad'='DAD'
'given' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dad that I've seen before include "Relation" , "Mum's mate" , "Father, in short" , "Old man" , "Papa" .)