I've just noticed that the mission statement of BBC Worldwide, which is, they confess, "the commercial arm of the BBC", goes as follows:
"Entertaining the world. Bringing value to the BBC".
I love these little mottos because they're often trying to claim one thing while concealing another.
This is a classic. The first sentence suggests that, like St Francis of Assisi or Medicins Sans Frontieres, they are driven by a desire to ease the pain, suffering and long winter evenings of a significant number of God's creatures. The second suggests they're not actually earning vast sums of money out of DVDs of The Office or Archers tea towels. What they're actually doing is more like a form of charity work that helps defray some of the running expenses of their venerable parent organisation. Bit like a bring & buy sale at your local church.
Perhaps you should change the description to 'officially commercial' as the rest of the BBC seems to have long abandoned any air of 'being above all that'. Can I refer you to 2 adverts in The Times on Saturday. One for the Arcade Fire BBC Promo Tour, and the other for a festival 'in association with 6 Music'. Tough if you aren't sponsored by the Beeb.
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