One of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of working in public relations is being able to mastermind humorous and entertaining PR stunts and seeing your clients reap the rewards as a result of the media exposure.

By and large, we disguise the PR intent behind any stunt that we do and endeavour to portray it as simply an amusing idea conjured up by the people involved.

This is far less devious than it first might sound. The media love to publish fun and quirky stories and the public love reading about them.

But the moment the reader discovers that the stunt has been stage-managed for commercial objectives, it will lose a certain element of fascination and some of its story value.

So take a story that has just appeared in the national newspapers in which a group of regulars at The Potters Arms public house in Chorley, Lancashire got together to play a practical joke on the landlords while they were away on holiday.

The couple, Stephen and Denise Potter, claimed they had no knowledge of their patrons’ plans to transform the exterior of their pub by painting it in a gaudy bright purple colour complemented by dazzling pink spots.

Most people would be incandescent with rage at the idea of returning from holiday only to discover that their treasured public house is more resemblant of Mr Blobby than a traditional alehouse.

Yet Mr and Mrs Potter were all too pleased to tell the national newspapers that they saw the funny side and signalled their intention to keep the pub that way for the time being – in order to publicise a forthcoming charity walk in aid of a local St Catherine’s Hospice.

You can be pretty sure that the whole thing was dreamt up as a way to grab media attention and start drawing in curious punters. But nobody is going to admit to that. And who can blame them?