I keep meaning to wade into this Inconvenient Truth PR spam debate but then stop because my points of view have already been covered by everyone else. Perhaps I miss the boat because of all the work I’m doing while others put their pen to paper.

So in the absence of any distinctive opinion (beyond too many press releases are plop and too many PRs use the word ’story’ when their information is inconsistent with such a claim), let me just chip in willy-nilly with an old blog favourite, a list.

A list of the 10 most useless, irrelevant or badly targeted press releases that I can remember receiving when working in journalism:

1. High Street bank’s press release on a great new business account, claiming to understand local business needs, localised with TippEx (name of county or city changed as appropriate)

2. Flowers are big news for Valentine’s Day, says florist

3. Country show’s entertainment line-up will be exactly the same at last year’s

4. A three-page handwritten ditty on how people can learn to bake cakes better

5. Hairdresser buys new broom

6. ‘Shouldn’t you be contemplating installing a stairlift?’ Ah, that old negative rhetorical

7. Supporters express joy that canal restoration project was completed 20 years ago

8. Don’t forget to pack the suncream if you’re heading to the sun, says retailer

9. A major who sent his own edited minutes of council meetings with quotes of him talking in bold

10. Dog enters Crufts