Sometimes in PR it’s important to play the long game. This was a mantra shared by all at Peppermint this week when the team broke findings by Dr Michelle Harvie, a dietician funded by the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal, which have been over two years in development.

The research, published yesterday, suggested that women can cut their risk of breast cancer by following a two-day a week diet.

Since the findings were released to the national media, Peppermint HQ has been a hive of activity and non-stop media liaison – in which time our infectious consultants have done their best to turn ‘phone juggling’ into the next Olympic sport!

After two years of discussions with Genesis, the results received widespread coverage on broadcast media, with specialist features appearing on North West Tonight. Blanket coverage also hit the newsstands today, with articles appearing in the Daily Mail, the Sun, Daily Express, Times.co.uk, Telegraph.co.uk, Mirror.co.uk and the Manchester Evening News.

At Peppermint, we‘re certainly no strangers to securing reams of coverage in the nationals – but this coverage is extra special to us. As the UK’s only charity entirely dedicated to the prevention of breast cancer, Genesis has the goal of making one in ten (the current number of women suffering from the disease) none in ten. The buzz of generating coverage that could potentially prevent certain cases of breast cancer is one of the best rewards we could ever have.

Yesterday, in my first glimpse of daytime TV since my student days, I caught a lively debate about the proposed guidelines for broadcast product placement. 

The focus of the discussion was the ‘P’ symbol that will appear before and after programmes to warn viewers that they contain product placement. The gist was that viewers don’t want to be patronised by this symbol and feel that they can easily spot product placement without it.

We’ve all seen product placement done very badly. The Coca Cola cups on American Idol to name just one example. The bottom line is that this initiative won’t work for the viewer or brand and therefore nor will it for the broadcaster. The real beauty of product placement and PR in general is that it should be seamless and so well placed that it’s invisible (at least to the masses). 

Whilst my gut instinct is to think that seeing Heinz on Heartbeat or Kellogg’s on Corrie could be a bit naff, done well, it is highly strategic and effective. How many girls can say that they don’t fancy a pair of Louboutins when they watch Carrie swishing down Fifth Avenue in hers? And what man would turn down a drive in Jack Bauer’s Ford Exhibition? 

Going back to whether viewers need to be warned, I’m inclined to say – probably not. Product placement could benefit TV quality as long as broadcasters don’t insist on crowbarring irrelevant products into the scripts. After all, this much-needed revenue should help to improve the quality of programming, and an actual product is a far more realistic addition than anything a prop department could offer. The door of opportunity is wide open and we’re intrigued to see which brands capitalise on it.

Thank goodness the BBC is ditching its misguided attempt to ‘funk up’ its long-standing institution, Gardeners’ World. The Beeb has pulled off the unenviable double-whammy of alienating its core Gardeners’ World audience whilst simultaneously failing to excite a younger demographic.

OK, so I can’t claim to be amongst the programme’s most long-standing viewers, who understandably feel incensed by the dumbing down of their beloved GW. But I do look back fondly on the days of serious horticultural advice from the silky-voiced Monty Don.

Recent introductions to spark up the format have bombed.  Innovations such as toe-curlingly contrived and deeply unentertaining banter between the presenters have prompted Gardeners’ World’s core fans to abandon the programme in their thousands.

So will the back to roots strategy succeed?  Well I for one am banking on it reinvigorating a much-loved feature of Friday night viewing.

So why did I do it? I’d finally got round to reading Remotely Controlled: How Television is Damaging Our Lives by Dr. Aric Sigman. It’s a terrifying exposé of the scientifically proven effects of watching the box.  I’d always felt slightly queasy at seeing my boys slumped, slack-jawed and glassy-eyed in front of back-to-back Simpsons.  Or my daughter, nose touching the screen, clamouring for more Peppa Pig.   But, we’d always watched TV as kids ourselves…so what could be so bad, right?  Well, lots actually.  I won’t go into the results of Sigman’s research here, but would recommend everyone to read up for themselves. They’re pretty shocking.

How to break it to the kids? I softened the blow by presenting them with a boot load of new Lego. Then tagged on nonchalantly that we wouldn’t be watching as much TV from now on. The boys looked incredulous, then crestfallen, then got stuck into the Lego.  After an initial barnstorming tantrum, the three-year-old was easier to handle. She bought the old ‘TV’s broken, man coming to fix it’ story, and enquires – though with decreasing regularity – as to when he is coming round.

And me? A fully paid up X Factor fan?  Would I really be able to tear myself away from Simon, Cheryl et al mid-series?  Actually, it was surprisingly easy. Funnily enough, with a bit of distance, I finally saw right through the smug manipulation of viewers, not to mention the obscene self-promotion.  And it’s been quite a relief not to panic about finding time to catch up on watching both shows if I’ve been out.  And that’s another thing: planning a social calendar around the X Factor didn’t leave too much room for socialising.

So have I given up TV completely? Nah. We’ll still be tuning in regularly to anything I’d class as decent viewing, and will no doubt watch the X Factor final, plus lots over Christmas.  What we will be, though, is a good deal more selective – there’s a lot that’s worth watching, but more that’s not.  The media, in all its forms, is my profession so, as long as I’m working in PR, the TV stays.  But the box has most definitely been put back in its box.

With the Fleet Street pack dedicating their tired pages to track each and every job loss it’s somewhat ironic that attention this week has been brought back to the media itself.

Munching through my Bran Flakes yesterday morning, my ears pricked up as John Humphrys announced that our biggest commercial broadcaster – ITV – is to cull over 600 staff.  The broadcaster’s move is a significant signpost that the recession is about to see the media landscape undergo a dramatic change. But will this be a make-over or a ‘make-under’ for our commercial media entities?

The media has always claimed to fulfil the objective of being ‘a mirror reflecting on society’ – highlighting every imperfection and flaw. But as advertising revenues are slashed it too is being thrust into the limelight. The so-called ‘mirror on society’ has been spun around to reflect back on the media itself and, it ain’t a pretty face staring back.

ITV chairman Michael Grade’s announcement of the £2.8 million debt troubling ITV, came as glossy men’s mag Arena became the latest victim of the recession.

Add to that the distinct possibility that Channel 4′s independent, innovative PSB output – currently in place to rival the BBC – may be under threat too. Instead, we could be watching CSI on the same channel as Corrie and news reports by John Snow – as ITV, Channel 4 and Five find themselves in discussions about joining forces.

It’s the regional newspapers, however, which appear to have been hardest hit as they embark on a mass operation to merge with other papers in an attempt to run more efficient news churning machines.

The media is clearly feeling the pinch and it’s going to be interesting to watch just how well the big news organisations fare over the next 12 months.

There could be a glimmer of light at the end of this gloomy tunnel though. As newspapers shrink and resources are sliced for broadcasters, could we actually see a stronger, media monster rise from the ashes? Looking back at the UK’s media pre recession, did it perhaps enjoy the freedom of too much advertising revenue, extravagant resources, endless pages to fill and too much air time to play around with? A self-indulgent media that lost sight of its purpose and which eventually led to even our broadsheets being polluted with trivial celeb gossip.

Perhaps, now that purse strings are tightening, space and air time will become more valued by our news editors. A new, more acute media monster may emerge, filled with only the highest quality news and entertainment and a sharper bite.

OK, maybe we can only dream – but watch this space as the recession attacks the media, sieving out the weakest links and, as Darwin depicted, leaving only the strongest standing.