Public relations professionals have dubbed a PR gaffe, in which a fashion label launched a range of cosmetics named after the murder capital of the world, as totally inexcusable.

Fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sisters behind leading clothing brand Rodarte, decided to name one of the colours in their latest range of make-up after the Mexican city of Juarez in the northern state of Chihuahua.

However, Juarez, which lies on the border with the US state of Texas, has the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous place in the world, playing host to thousands of drug-related murders every year.

The company was then quickly forced to apologise after causing widespread offence for its unfortunate choice of name.

Meanwhile MAC Cosmetics, the upmarket label that manufactures the range, issued a statement apologising to consumers and fans of the brand and pledging to donate $100,000 to help support women affected by the violence in the city.

But many PR practitioners are branding the fiasco as totally inexcusable, especially given that the idea was inspired by a visit to Juarez by the Mulleavy sisters themselves, who should now be all-too aware of the serious problems that the city faces.

And if there were any doubt that they were unaware of the city's significance, a simple check on the Internet would have been all that was needed to realise that the choice of name would have landed the brand in PR trouble.

A determined Stoke-on-Trent jobseeker, who had been out of work for two years, has demonstrated the power of publicity by promoting himself at a busy road junction and landing himself a job within just a few hours.

Mark Wheeldon from Newcastle-under-Lyme had been looking everywhere for a job but was getting nowhere with the traditional methods of finding work.

So the 23-year-old decided to adopt a PR campaign of action and get himself noticed by turning up at one of Stoke-on-Trent's busiest roundabouts with a sign made from a piece of cardboard saying Please! - Give me a job.

Then after standing in a torrential downpour for nearly three hours a local businessman pulled up and promptly offered the rain-soaked former mechanic and decorator an interview at his nearby timber factory.

And by midday Mr Wheeldon was the latest new employee at the Smart Timber Frame Company after factory director Vince Champion decided that Mark's initiative and determination were exactly the sort of qualities his business needed.

Having seen this type of approach reap rewards time and time again, PR professionals are not at all surprised by how quickly such a course of action can yield positive results.

But what really impresses them is how the company also identified it as an interesting and newsworthy story and grabbed a valuable name check in the national newspapers in the process.

Horrified PR consultants have been debating whether a ridiculous promotional stunt, in which a terrified donkey was forced to parasail over a Russian seaside resort, is possibly the worst public relations stunt ever.

The sadistic marketing caper was organised by a group of businessmen looking to advertise parasailing sessions at their private beach in the small village of Golubitskaya on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia.

Shocked sunbathers looked on in disbelief as the hapless donkey was strapped to a parachute and sent soaring several hundred feet over the sea, braying in fear as it was pulled along by a powerboat for about half an hour before being dumped into the sea and dragged to safety.

Children were reported to be in tears as several onlookers filmed the terrifying ordeal with their mobile phones.

The local police only found out about the incident after seeing mobile footage on national television and are now considering pressing criminal charges of animal cruelty.

No right-minded and sensitive PR practitioner would sanction such a heartless act and few in the profession disagree that the stunt was one of the cruellest ever.

But ironically the very idea of a donkey parasailing is both sufficiently bizarre and amusing enough to give the resort the best publicity it will probably ever have.

Public relations practitioners have been stunned by the appalling lack of PR sensitivity of a party of county councillors who went on a fact-finding mission to a lap-dancing club at the taxpayer's expense.

A team of 13 local authority officials from Cornwall Council spent an evening at Temptations T2 strip club in Plymouth, on what they described as an extremely worthwhile visit.

The council recently voted to adopt new government legislation reclassifying gentlemen's clubs as sexual entertainment venues and arranged the trip as a way of helping it to make informed decisions about licensing laws in the future.

But the visit inevitably caught the attention of both regional and national newspapers, sparking public outrage and putting the authority directly in the firing line of furious Cornish council taxpayers, astounded by the extraordinary waste of public money.

Several councillors attempted to appease the public by claiming that they came out of the visit very well informed.

But PR professionals believe that the response was exceptionally weak and that the council should have been far more specific as to exactly how the trip was informative.

Nevertheless, most PR specialists agree that this is simply a case where you cannot defend the indefensible.

By contrast, had the council sent just one or two representatives to the club, the trip would have been nothing more than a source of minor personal embarrassment.

The PR industry has welcomed the precautionary action of a regional NHS trust to prevent damage to its reputation through inappropriate use of social media by issuing a set of Facebook guidelines to hospital workers.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust sent out an email on its staff intranet service highlighting its concerns about breaching patient confidentiality on social sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

It reminded employees about the risks of describing incidents, people and situations that they encountered at work, following a growing number of complaints about the content staff were posting to their Facebook profiles.

In particular, it warned against making disparaging remarks about the organisation and its staff, taking photos of patients from mobile phones and posting any information that could lead to the identification of a patient.

A Trust spokeswoman described the move as a precautionary measure and that no disciplinary action had been taken against any individual.

Leading PR commentators have urged other trusts to follow Lancashire's lead by taking pre-emptive action rather than waiting until a serious incident had taken place.

Nevertheless, the PR profession is delighted to see signs that its message about inappropriate use of social media is finally getting through and is now looking forward to the day when social media guidelines become a standard part of company procedure.

A drinks accessories website is the toast of the PR industry after it became focus of attention in the national press over its new range of inflatable olde-worlde beer taverns that you can put up in your own back garden.

Drinkstuff.com could not have asked for a better way to launch its latest range of novelty products for events and home entertaining, with several national and international newspapers covering the story and giving the company a highly valuable name check.

Each inflatable imitation tavern comes complete with all the classic features of a cosy village pub, such as fake chimney pots, tiled roof, a brick stone wall and a welcoming fireplace, and can accommodate anything up to 50 people.

The largest in the range, The Hogshead, even features a PVC dartboard integrated into the internal artwork. But with the inflatable retailing at a budget-crunching £27,815, few owners would ever challenge their guests to use it.

PR agencies delight in unusual products and services such as these, which capture the imagination of the general public and make great stories that help to raise awareness of their clients.

Not only is drinkstuff.com a classic example, but it also demonstrates the importance of PR timing by getting valuable media coverage just in time for the summer peak of outdoor parties, weddings and festivals.

The PR community has welcomed research highlighting the commercial benefits of social media, which found that recommendations on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter had a very clear positive impact on sales.

London-based PR agency Skywrite conducted a survey of more than 1,000 people in a bid to gauge the true potential of social media as a business marketing tool.

It revealed that 16% of respondents said they had gone on to buy a product or service after reading a recommendation on a social networking site.

The study also showed differences between the way men and women follow up on recommendations in the social media space.

Women were more likely to check out a product or service in response to a positive customer rating, with 75% of women making further enquiries compared with only 50% of men.

By contrast, 31% of men ended up actually making a purchase compared with just 17% of women, making them a somewhat better prospect for converting positive reviews into sales.

PR agencies have long been aware of the potential of social media in building customer relationships and boosting brand awareness, but the survey also demonstrates the importance of customer reviews in directly influencing sales.

What's more, the clear differences between male and female customer behaviour provide useful intelligence to marketers looking to adopt a more targeted approach to their social media campaigns.

A sea life centre in Germany is making the most of the global publicity surrounding its aquatic sensation, Paul the Octopus, which has a remarkable talent for making accurate World Cup predictions.

On the day before each of the nation's World Cup matches, Sea Life Oberhausen in north-west Germany challenges its celebrity cephalopod to predict the outcome of the game by lowering a pair of boxes containing food into his tank, one bearing the German flag and the other that of its opponents.

Whichever box Paul chooses first is taken to be his tip for the winner of the upcoming match.

And in a remarkable bit of mystic mollusc magic, the octopus has correctly predicted the result of every Germany match so far, including the country's shock defeat to Serbia and the wins against England and Argentina in the knockout stages.

Such has been the excitement generated by Paul's skills as a football pundit that his forecast for the crunch semi-final clash with Spain was screened live on national German television.

However, the sea life centre was left with mixed feelings about Paul's latest prediction of a win for the Spanish, as a defeat for Germany would at least maintain Paul's 100% record and do much to maintain Sea Life Oberhausen as the focus of world media attention.