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Grunig in his excellence theory suggested that of the 15 percent of organisations that practice two way symmetrical communication, this consisted primarily of regulated business. By examining the communication practices of financial advisory firm X, does this support or disprove Grunig’s claims? The four models of public relations and excellence theory as proposed by Grunig and Hunt in 1984 remains one of the most dominant and also critiqued theoretical perspectives in public relations (Laskin, 2009). The evolution of communication practices by organizations has been heavily influenced by the idea of two-way symmetrical communications. Many more organizations have adjusted the way that they communicate with their publics as a result of ‘excellence theory’ and the growth in new technologies- specifically social media. However, many public relations scholars and practitioners argue that the two-way symmetrical communication and excellence theory simply provides a theoretical and unrealistic ideal for practitioners to strive to achieve, rather than reflecting what Grunig (2001) maintains to be a practiced model by excellent public relations departments. In this essay, using the example of regulated financial advisory firm X, we will consider the accuracy of Grunig’s suggestion that it is primarily regulated business that practices two- way symmetrical communication and ‘excellent’ public relations by analyzing the methods by which X communicates with its publics. We will endeavor to show that Grunig’s belief that only two-way symmetrical public relations is excellent communication is limiting in its theoretical analysis and does not allow for differences in publics, messages, scenario or indeed type of organization. Furthermore we will show that in fact it could equally be argued that to be excellent public relations, the practitioner adjusts their communication methods for each situation and for each public. Similarly we will show that the theory is in fact more