This from Silicon.com:
"Angus Porter, managing director of BT Retail’s consumer division, said: The piper has done an excellent job for BT for the last twelve years and has become one of the country's most recognisable marks. While it reflects many of BT's strengths as a company, it has become associated with some outdated perceptions of BT as simply a fixed-line telephone company."
It always looked like a clown drinking a yard of ale to me.