If you're reading this, chances are, you're in the media industry, either as a journalist, PR or marketer with media crossover. Or you're my mum, and you await my words like a teenage girl awaits their next instalment of angst-filled bestiality-endorsing romance fiction.

Still, you'll know what I mean when I say that to the public, with whom we are supposed to court relations, PRs are generally disliked. We're the people that keep the truth from journalists, and thus from them.

BP's handling of the oil disaster epitomises everything apparently wrong and unnecessary about in our industry, and just as Hannibal Lector gives all cannibals a bad name, any media mention of 'PR gaffes' or 'PR photo opportunities' further decreases our popularity with the very people we want to reach out to on behalf of our clients.

All PRs are aware that the media agenda will often dictate the sort of press releases we write for clients, and that making our clients relevant to what journalists, bloggers and the masses are talking or writing about is a great way to get coverage and people talking about our clients.

Whether it’s the in-vogue celebrity, the latest hit TV show, the hot product of the moment, or the event on everybody’s lips, finding a plausible way to relate your client to the media agenda has long-since been the domain of PRs. Of course, having a targeted campaign plan dictated by what makes your client unique is the main focus, but we always approach our client activity with the mindset – ‘would you talk about this in the pub or salon?’. If not, chances are, we won’t so much as leave the development room with it written down.

Still, the pressure to gain coverage can make PRs forget themselves, and if clients are equally desperate for the world to take them seriously and be aware of just who they are and what they do – well, this is a terrible combination.

I joked on Twitter (@GoodandBadPR) earlier, asking the question, ‘Hands up you cheeky PR scamps - who tied their clients into Michael Jackson's anniversary?’, and instantly got a few tweets back, most of which just agreed with my feelings, which is that there are some things you just shouldn’t relate your clients to. Most respondents just made it clear how tactless it’d be, and how they believed it would be in serious bad taste.

Wouldn’t it?

Well, apparently not, no. Matt Muir, he of Human Body Parts Treasure Hunt fame (you may not know him, but I’ve got a lot of respect for him and his wily PR ways), now at Hill and Knowlton, replied back, with this: ‘*ahem* http://bit.ly/cKGraF’.

If you haven’t already clicked the link (outgoing link, of course – this blog won’t leak traffic, not on my watch...), you may not need to. ‘Holiday firm launches 'King Of Pop' tours as first anniversary of death nears’, reads the headline on the Mail Online.

Whatever your thoughts about the Daily Mail, their readership is huge online, remaining the most popular daily newspaper online through April, according to this Guardian article – breaking an astounding 40m unique users per month.

And the story got more coverage elsewhere.

There’s a new MJ game, and many other stories released by PRs to coincide with the ‘event’ too, which got me thinking – should some things be out of bounds?

There is a line, and you don’t often see people cross it, especially with national disasters and tragedies (there have been both in recent weeks in the media), but it just got me thinking – perhaps the reason the general public aren’t such big fans of PRs is that we’d sell our own mothers to make the Sun front page.

Tying your client into Apple’s latest launch? OK, if tough, given the probable competition vying for Johnny Journalist’s attention.

Tying your client into the first anniversary of the death of possibly the best-known modern-day celebrity to walk the face of the earth on a date millions will mourn his passing? Not so much.

Let's play the game, kids.

Have a great weekend.