Leading PR professionals have been reacting to the earth-shattering news of Michael Jackson's death, describing his demise as the ultimate outcome of a slow and painful PR suicide.
A tarnished image inevitably took its toll on the troubled superstar's health, following years of damaging revelations about his private life.
And it reached rock bottom when Jackson faced court proceedings on charges of child molestation. Although he was eventually cleared, his fate was already sealed.
But many in the PR industry have singled out the disastrous 2003 TV documentary, in which British journalist Martin Bashir spent 8 months tracking Jackson's personal life, as the killer blow to his respectability.
Jackson was counting on Bashir to repair his reputation as a warped genius by conveying him more as a human figure and a loving parent.
But the decision to let Bashir into his private life turned out to be a disastrous move, which led to the criminal investigation about his relationships with children, made him the media's favourite whipping boy and the target of public mockery of his freakish behaviour.
It was the beginning of a rapid downward decline for the singing sensation and his death represents the world's most famous fatality of bad reputation management and the resulting media mauling.
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