BBC bosses hoped that spending £20,000 on mugs with messages encouraging staff to call out bad behaviour would bring an end to a series of embarrassing scandals.
But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the campaign has gone down the drain – after the messages washed off in just a few weeks.
The mugs were part of the Corporation’s ‘Call It Out’ campaign, which was launched by Director-General Tim Davie in April in response to its Workplace Culture Review.
The report had been commissioned in the wake of the scandal around newsreader Huw Edwards and found there were ‘powerful figures’ at the BBC who made their colleagues’ lives ‘unbearable’.
As part of the campaign, the Corporation spent £61,000 on office accessories, including 10,000 pin badges, 7,000 mugs and 6,000 lanyards.
Almost £20,000 was spent on the branded mugs alone, along with more than £6,000 on the pin badges and lanyards.
However, the mugs have proved to have a major flaw – they do not appear to be dishwasher safe – and the messaging has started peeling off after a few cycles.
One BBC insider said: ‘There was much fanfare around the launch of Call It Out after endless scandals that needed stamping out.
BBC bosses have spent £20,000 on mugs with messages encouraging staff to call out bad behaviour
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the campaign has gone down the drain – after the messages washed off in just a few weeks
The mugs were part of the Corporation’s ‘Call It Out’ campaign, which was launched in response to its Workplace Culture Review. The report had been commissioned in the wake of the scandal around newsreader Huw Edwards (pictured) and found there were ‘powerful figures’ at the BBC who made their colleagues’ lives ‘unbearable’
‘Now the bosses are feeling pretty mugged off after spending all that cash. It was a complete waste of money.’
In the past year, the Corporation has been engulfed in a series of scandals, including one in which Gary Lineker, its highest-paid presenter, was forced to leave Match Of The Day in May after he shared an anti-Semitic social media post.
And last month, MasterChef hosts Gregg Wallace and John Torode were axed after allegations of misconduct and racist language against them were upheld.
While in May, opera singer Wynne Evans lost his job at BBC Radio Wales after he was found to have used a sexual slur while taking part in Strictly’s nationwide tour.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We have had no reports of any defects with our Call It Out materials, including the mugs, which are dishwasher safe. If one did arise, we would raise these with our supplier.’
