When Sony launched a $30m promotional campaign in 1995 for Michael Jackson's sort-of best-of album 'HIStory' (his story – geddit?) and announced that a giant 10m high, 2 tonne steel and fibreglass statue would be sailed down the Thames, it all looked amazing on paper.

But in reality, a statue that looked more like Daryl Hannah crossed with Chewbacca and Texas Pete from Superted floating down a dirty Thames pulled by a grubby barge in the middle of the day probably wasn't the vision of grandeur that the marketing execs had in mind when they ran this one up the flagpole to see if anyone would salute it.

Still, better than the Kate Moss emerging from her own flower statue.

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