Tone deaf BBC have become a public laughing stock, is it any wonder people won’t pay the licence fee?
AS the BBC proudly unveil their new advert extolling the virtues of the TV licence, it’s hard to know which emotion to grapple with first.
Is it the revulsion at the complete lack of self-awareness in their self-promotion?
The BBC’s new advert extolling the virtues of the TV licence is proof that a tone deaf organisation should never sing its own praises Credit: BBC
Perhaps it’s rage at the fact that hundreds of thousands of pounds must have been spent to make the expensive pat on the back?
Overriding it all, however, is the disbelief that they’ve dropped this days after the BBC‘s Annual Report revealed the millions they pay their executives and talent.
That was released just weeks after the Beeb revealed that they were desperately trying to make £500m in savings and were losing 550 jobs.
We can do the maths and see that, exactly 40 years after John Cleese made the same advert, it might be a nice time to do a modern version.
But, heck guys, read the room. The timing couldn’t be worse.
Nobody wants to see this right now. Not the viewers nor the wider public who’ve witnessed the Beeb become mired in a string of apparently self-induced crisis.
And certainly not the hundreds of people about to find themselves unemployed. How they must feel seeing corporation chiefs high-fiving themselves and continuing to pick up their substantial pay packets.
Romesh Ranganathan was supposed to walk us through the BBC’s greatest hits, but peppered inbetween those smug moments were reminders of some of their greatest failures too – Doctor Who, Winterwatch, Glastonbury, BBC News.
No doubt the execs hoped this costly production would win us over to the £180 fee and reverse the sea-change that last year saw 500,000 fewer people purchase licences.
But far from reminding us just how wonderful the BBC is, they’ve simply outlined just how much they’ve cocked things up.
This advert is proof that a tone deaf organisation should never sing its own praises.
