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The BBC’s corporate marketing division is launching an ad campaign

which aims to reassert the broadcaster’s role in national life, as

Labour prepares to announce plans to increase licence fee payments.

The ads, created by Leagas Delaney, will coincide with the opening of

FutureWorld on 19 February, an exhibition which will tour Britain

informing viewers of the BBC’s future role.

The campaign is launched in the face of mounting criticism over the

Government’s plans to introduce a digital licence fee at the same time

as increasing the TV licence fee.

The 60-second spots feature children who have the same names as key BBC

personalities, such as Michael Parkinson, David Frost and the BBC’s new

director-general, Greg Dyke. The use of children as mouthpieces

emphasises its aim to speak to the future viewers of the BBC.

In one ad, a six-year-old from Wigan, called Michael Parkinson,

reassures viewers that the BBC ’will still be committed to servicing the

needs and interests of its viewers’. In another, Gregory Dyke, aged

seven, plants a flag on Mars and tells viewers: ’The BBC will always be

the BBC.’

In total, 13 children have been filmed upholding the values of the

broadcaster.

The campaign was directed by Michael Geoghegan of Pink and produced by

John Golley from the BBC. It was art directed by Ian Ducker and written

by Will Farquhar of Leagas Delaney.

Jane Frost, the controller of BBC corporate marketing, said the ads had

been created not specifically to justify the cost of digital TV, but to

reassure viewers about the BBC’s role in the future as well as inviting

them to visit the FutureWorld exhibition.

Frost added: ’All of our research shows that people trust the BBC to

provide them with clear, unbiased information about the future. This

isn’t an ephemeral licence fee ad. It faces the challenge squarely about

how to talk about the future without using a space-age plot or being

patronising.’

The ads will run throughout the year and be supported by a campaign

across local BBC radio and posters around the FutureWorld exhibition

sites.