It's hard not to feel sorry for Janet Jackson sometimes. She's recorded countless classic songs like, er… anyway, look, the thing that Janet Jackson is now most famous for is whipping a nork out at a sports match.

And no woman wants to have their music career – which has spanned two decades – spoiled by the sight of a floppy tit, do they? So there's only one way to get everyone's mind focused back on the music, and that's by doing lots of audience-friendly marketing. Like, say, letting fans design the cover of the new Janet Janet 20 Years Old CD. Yeah, that should do it.

Janet Jackson is different things to different people at different times. At some times, Janet Jackson is the only successful Jackson who escaped with all their marbles, at others she's the brother of the giraffe blood man, or the woman who can play her arse like the bongos, or the woman who certainly doesn't have a secret teenage daughter lurking around. Oh, who are we kidding? Janet Jackson is the Super Bowl boobie woman, and nothing more.

However, this year is Janet Jackson's 20th year as a singer, and she wants to mark the occasion with a special event for fans. Well, we say 'she' but chances are that the Virgin Records marketing department wants to mark the occasion. Either way, Janet Jackson's fans are being asked to design a special cover for her forthcoming 20 Years Old CD. Here's what Janet Jackson herself wants to say on the matter:

"We were going on the website and looking at all this creative stuff the kids were doing, and it amazed us. They were taking old pictures and they were just very creative with all the designs. We said, 'Let's have these kids design our album cover.' They told me that I should pick maybe 20, 30 photos, but I think I went a little crazy. I picked way more than that. I gave them some of the new stuff I just shot for the album cover shoot. So they have some really recent photos as well as some stuff from 20 years ago."

The Janet Jackson Design Me competition entries need to be completed soon, because the 20 Years Old album is out on September 26th. And, no, you probably won't win if you just Photoshop a couple of flappy bazzers onto the front of Janet Jackson's chest. We'd already thought of that one.

Read more:

Janet Jackson Wants Fans To Design New Album Cover – Yahoo

[story by Stuart Heritage]