Journalist and controversial author Nick Davies, speaking at the LEWIS Media Centre, earlier this week flagged "pseudo events" as a worrying PR tactic.
Journalists, you see, are being fooled by everything from staged photo opportunities to faux-rallies into thinking a PR stunt is actually news.
Well check out page 3 of today's Times newspaper (or worse still the online version of the same story, with some neat product placement in the headline).
The PR team behind Adidas must have been high-fiving one another for a good hour this morning after seeing how their launch of the new England kit has morphed into a news story that reaped coverage far beyond the usual page 80 filler of a player wearing said kit with a few trite comments about the new design. The BBC also went for this story, hook line and sinker.
Because stop the presses, this isn't just a new kit, this is the death of an institution, the end of woollen jumpers for cricketers.
Or as the Times journalist eulogises: "Another day, another hallowed cricket tradition falls. After matches that can be completed in three hours, cheerleaders, players auctioned to the highest bidder and pink balls, a further piece of iconoclasm occurred at Lord’s yesterday when the last rites were read for the cable-knit cricket sweater."
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