Yesterday, everyone from N-Dubz, Nicola Roberts and yours truly headed down to Weston-Super-Mare for the annual T4 On The Beach event.

The all-day spectacular showed off the best of the music industry. I, meanwhile, was backstage in the gifting lounge, alongside huge brands like Blackberry and Lipsy. For me, the highlight of the day was surely fake-tanning the McFly boys − swoon! While the band all ended up with a perfect glow, my proximity to them turned my face into a rather less fetching shade of raspberry.

It wasn’t all playtime though, as we walked away from the day having secured an exclusive deal for our client with one of the hottest celebs of the moment.

P.S. Check out my ‘expert’ photography of The Wanted taking to the catwalk stage.

I have about 600 friends on Facebook. I use the term ‘friend’ loosely, since I would probably only choose to speak to about 200 of them via ‘chat’.

It was refreshing then, to read that rap star, Kanye West, has only one ‘friend’ who he follows on Twitter – nineteen-year-old Stephen Holmes from the West Midlands.

West decided to follow the Coventry teenager last Saturday evening. Three hours later, Holmes had 3,000 new followers (and still counting).

Holmes admits to having no idea why the superstar sensation picked him. To put an end to the avalanche of comments from music fans and journalists, he has since limited his own Twitter activity, even going so far as to delete the application from his iPhone.

Undoubtedly, the celebrity has become the powerful PR tool of the twenty-first century. Research conducted last month fuelled the belief that using celebrities over attractive non-celebs to endorse products does actually increase sales. Apparently, when viewing celebrity images, brain activity is heightened.

So it just goes to show that, despite being a powerful tool in its own right, social media certainly benefits from having a partner in crime, the celebrity, to achieve the maximum influence over society.

According to a piece in today’s Sun, nearly half of teenage girls want cosmetic surgery to boost their confidence, stop being bullied or look like a celebrity.

The initial reaction in the office was that of shock and horror – the girls surveyed were between the ages of 13 and 16 and the most popular ops were weight-loss surgery, breast implants and better teeth. However, after discussing the topic for a while, we cast our minds back to how we felt at that horrid, awkward age and thinking about it, ‘nearly half’ seems fairly low. What 13-year-old hasn’t felt like an ugly duckling at the stage between girl and woman?

Thinking back to when I was 13, I remember feeling chubby, flat-chested and in desperate need of orthodontistry – I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one. The difference between a 13-year-old in 2001 and a 13-year-old in 2010 is that now, teens have to deal with stick-thin, perma-tanned, bouncy haired celebrities with perfect smiles in every magazine, advert, film, TV programme and music video they see.

Back then, my feelings of inadequacy were in comparison to my skinny classmates – not to skinny celebrities. According to the study, 11 per cent of the teenagers who wanted surgery were spurred on by celebs. It’s sad that 13-year-old girls look to the likes of the size-zero surgery-obsessed Katie Price, Heidi Montag and Victoria Beckham for inspiration.

At the age of 21 I still have insecurities, but like most women I feel a lot happier in my own skin. In most circumstances I don’t think cosmetic surgery is necessary, especially not for young people. There are many much cheaper, less painful ways to feel better about oneself. I’m sure that even though it feels like we live in a celebrity-obsessed world, the teenagers of today will, in years to come, realise that too.

When it comes to raising awareness about a brand or charitable cause, there’s nothing quite like the power of celebrity. Simply put, they sell more publications, attract more viewers and add more weight to stories. Great news, especially if you’re a charity.

Take The Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal, for example. The charity undertakes pioneering research and is the only one in the UK dedicated entirely to the prevention of breast cancer. It has important advice for the general public and finding new ways to get it ‘out there’ is crucial. Like many other charities, it has several celebrity patrons who are committed to supporting the organisation.

Sally Whittaker, a.k.a Sally Webster in Corrie, has been involved with The Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal since 1999. When her much loved character on the street was diagnosed with breast cancer, she turned to the charity for advice. In a sad twist of irony, she too was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly afterwards.

Her personal and on-screen battle with the disease provided her and The Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal with the perfect opportunity to raise awareness about the disease. Her experience has generate intense interest amongst the media and has been spreading the word everywhere – from Hello! and the Daily Express through to GMTV and Radio 5 Live.

The natural public interest in her diagnosis has helped the charity to reach millions of people in just a few days and could even help save lives. That is the power of celebrity.

I don’t think anyone in the Peppermint PR office was particularly surprised when they read the news that Peaches Geldof had been dropped as the face of lingerie brand, Ultimo. Following the half-naked photographs of her and a former fling on the net, bosses at Ultimo decided she no longer fits the bill as ‘a positive role model that young women can aspire to’.

After an emergency meeting it was decided that every piece of Ultimo branding in shop windows, online and in department stores, featuring Peaches’ image had to be immediately removed.

Companies want the ‘face’ of their brand to represent everything they stand for, so when that person turns out to be a naughty boy or girl, it can cast the business in a negative light. Sponsorship and modelling contracts form an integral part of the brand strategy of many companies. So, careful consideration goes into selecting someone ‘just right’ to represent a brand; when it all goes wrong a company has to be just as decisive in knowing when it’s essential to let them go.

However, they do say ‘all publicity is good publicity’ – Peaches’ Ultimo modelling shots have featured in almost every tabloid newspaper and gossip blogs since the news broke.

Rock offspring Peaches is not the first celebrity to be dropped due to her bad-girl ways. Back in 2005, Kate Moss was plastered across the tabloids when photographic evidence of her cocaine habit emerged. She was dropped by Burberry, Chanel and H&M following the scandal, but went on to make millions off the back of the controversy.

Celebrities – as we have all seen countless times before – are the masters of bouncing back. Who had really heard of Paris Hilton before that infamous sex tape propelled her to megastardom? Let’s not forget everyone’s favourite Geordie lass, Cheryl Cole, who went from being convicted of assaulting a nightclub toilet attendant to achieving national treasure status as a judge on the country’s biggest TV show, the X-Factor.

21-year-old Peaches is reportedly ‘devastated’ to have lost the lucrative £100,000 a year contract, but who knows where she’ll go from here? Perhaps, like Paris Hilton, Kate Moss and Cheryl Cole before her, she can use this to her advantage? I wonder how many companies will be queuing up to take her on?

Each Peppermint begins the day by digesting the world’s news along with their tea and cornflakes. We leaf through each newspaper sharing ideas and keeping up-to-date with what’s going on. Since January 13, the tragic earthquake in Haiti has been at the epicentre of the world’s media agenda and yesterday morning was no different.

“I bet there were some tongue-tied women when Daniel Craig answered the ’phone,” said a fellow Peppermint, as she pointed to a picture showing enough A-list celebs to put the Oscar guest list to shame. It was coverage of the charity telethon in aid of the Haiti appeal this weekend.

At first I felt my nose wrinkle at the thought of toothy celebs dominating so many column inches when the subject matter is so serious.  However, on reflection, we see PR campaigns every day that use celebrity endorsement to raise clients’ profiles, so why shouldn’t the same strategy be applied to such a worthy cause?

The objective is to raise a heap of cash for the appeal. The strategy is to use a bus load of Hollywood’s finest. The result is reams of easy-on the-eye coverage. And that has garnered the attention of all those readers who flick without pausing over the stomach-churning images of death and destruction we’ve seen relentlessly over the past week or so. All in all – a job well done.  So congratulations celebrities, media and to all who have donated so far!