The BBC has yet to decide if it will ever air the ad, which promotes Radio 1's DJs, because it feels that the spot looks too expensive.
It is not known how much the film cost to produce, although it is understood that it did not attract an extravagant production budget.
Other BBC roster agencies have also expressed concerns that the BBC is asking them to produce work that "looks good, but not too good", in response to growing pressures that the licence fee is spent resourcefully during recession.
The news comes two days after a paper by the Centre for Policy Studies called for BBC funding to be cut.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "We are still working out the best way to play out the campaign to be most effective in reaching younger audiences.
"The production costs are in line with other BBC campaigns of a similar scale and we work hard to ensure we deliver good value for our marketing spend."
The last major ad push for Radio 1 was "meet the DJs", a campaign by Agency Republic, which ran in cinemas and online.
BBC fears backlash over 'expensive' ad
by Kate Nettleton, campaignlive.co.uk, 02 April 2009, 07:00am
LONDON - The launch of an ad for BBC Radio 1, created by Fallon, has been put on hold by the BBC because of fears of a backlash from licence-fee payers.
All Comments
Jason Edge - 02 April 2009
Does Radio 1 actually need to advertise? I can't imagine that there is a radio listening adult in the UK that has not heard of the station. As it is a non-commercial radio station does it realy need to boost its listener numbers? I don't think so.
Perhaps they should spend the money on better programming and attract listeners through content rather than 'expensive looking' ad campaigns.
Dylan Mouratsing - 02 April 2009
Surely it's more of a waste to commission an ad and not air it? Agree they probably don't need a top-flight agency doing elaborate ads when they are already hitting their targets and budgets are at risk.
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