Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a publicity stunt dressed up as a cruise liner.

P&O Cruises has decided to brave the waters of public opinion, announcing that it will throw open the naming process for its new ocean liner to suggestions from all comers.

Coincidentally, the last time an organisation tried something similar it developed into an enormous PR hit for the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), as thousands of online voters propelled the name Boaty McBoatface into the nation’s hearts.

The popularity of the ridiculous suggestion, and the NERC’s ultimate decision to ditch the public’s favourite in favour of the more appropriate RSS David Attenborough, ensured screeds of coverage for the vessel’s development and cemented the online-poll-gone-wrong as a PR favourite.

But a P&O spokeswoman told the Guardian the company had planned to invite names from the public long before Boaty McBoatface was even a ripple on the public’s consciousness. “It’s something we have wanted to do for a while,” she said.

“Everyone will get a say; the more ideas the better,” she added.

P&O has yet to decide how it will choose the winning name, although the spokeswoman said all suggestions were welcome and “some kind of voting element” was likely.

The process does not start formally until early next year, but initial suggestions from Twitter are mildly promising. Alongside a plethora of “Shippy McShipfaces” and “Cruisey McCruisefaces”, one user suggested simply “Brian Ferry”.

The idea of roping in the public to help name ships is not a new one, Jackie Murphy, managing director of the brand consultancy Flagship Consulting, said. Cruise companies have long used it as a means of generating interest in liners that can take years to build.

Flagship Consulting has run similar exercises for new launches on the Norwegian Cruise Line, and Royal Caribbean was doing it as long ago as 2008, she pointed out.

“You have to think carefully before you do a competition to ensure you actually get names that reflect the experience they will have on board,” she said.

“It’s definitely a way of trying to get publicity, but also a way of getting people to engage with the new ship and the concept of the new ship. It’s a way of helping them talk about a ship that’s not actually there yet.”

The company hopes for something similarly dignified and patriotic as Britannia, a ship it launched last year, the spokeswoman said, something that “typifies and embodies what we want from this ship: it’s the nation’s ship”.

Whether such gravitas is possible in a post-Boatface era remains to be seen. But the NERC found an elegant fix to its polling dilemma, naming the ship RRS David Attenborough – but allowing Boaty McBoatface to live on as a remotely piloted submarine.