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various levels of perception in an effort to
highlight the maintenance of the high standards
of programming traditionally identified
with the BBC. One method, taken directly
from commercial advertising is celebrity
endorsement (as seen in the latest BBC advert
extolling the fact that ‘Television is Evolving’
(more precisely, BBC television is evolving))
using celebrities from the world of art, sport,
music and news to present an image to the
public that the BBC is ‘evolving’ into the digital
age. This message seeks to build the BBC’s
image and identity as a ‘change leader’
(Kanter, 1989) in new technology together
with identifying to stakeholders the variety
and quality of entertainment that the BBC
produces.
The Excellence theory could be applied to
the use of this ‘infotainment’ as an example of
corporate PR excellence under a number of
headings: strategic planning, necessary to
ensure that quality is not just spoken about
but that action takes place; the utilization of a
strong participative culture where employees
share a sense not only of the mission but also
of its success. Furthermore, by utilizing
women and minorities in its ‘infotainment’
the BBC also seeks to show itself as an organization
that recognizes the value of diversity,
another factor in Grunig’s model.
Arguably, this ‘infotainment’ message
works on two levels. First, it is inextricably
linked to the important message of funding.
The licence fee is what makes possible the
production of programmes of high ambition
and the public is asked to recognize this
through the medium of celebrity endorsement.
Second, the ‘infotainment’ medium
also seeks to engage the emotions of the
BBC’s own employees and contractors by
trying to create, through the images of these
endorsements, a corporate reputation that
people will feel proud to be associated with.
An example of where the development
and production of ‘infotainment’ meets the
criteria identified in Grunig’s Excellence
Model, is the BBC’s ‘Perfect Day’ production.
It became one of the most successful UK corporate
trails ever made, and was a BBC innovation
concerning the corporation’s musical
output. ‘Perfect Day’ (1997) was a celebration
of the corporation’s public service commitment
to the broadest range of music programmes
(Meech, 1999). Broadcast in its
full four-minute and one-minute cut-down
versions, it quickly became something of a
cult. It was shown originally between September
and December 1997, though sales of
a CD version contributed significantly to the
BBC’s annual national charity appeal for
Children in Need that year (Annual Report
1997). The concept of the trail was arguably
to project to the BBC’s stakeholders the image
of the BBC as a champion of excellence across
a wide spectrum of music, a spectrum that it
could achieve only through its vast resources,
paid for by stakeholders’ licence fees. The trail
also provided synergy between the BBC’s promotional
work and its corporate social
responsibility work. Thus Grunig’s factor of
social responsibility, in the sense that excellent
organizations have an obligation to serve societal
needs (Chung, 1987), would seem also to
have been met.
‘Perfect Day’ was revived in May 2002 to
promote a five-day, national music festival,
BBC Music Live, which featured more than
1,000 hours of television, radio and online
broadcasts. The sheer size of the undertaking
was arguably something only the BBC with its
huge infrastructure (Grunig’s HR and organic
structure factor) and creative flair (intrapreneurship
factor – necessary for innovation)
could reasonably claim to have been capable
of producing in a UK context. The festival
ended, on a national holiday, Monday 29
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors