Titbits – council rags, terror flags and whitewashed Hackney

Titbits bird

  • Want to advertise in the council’s freesheet Hackney Today? Contact Greenwich Council! Readers of the council’s rag, given out free to 100,000 homes, might be confused to find two advertising contacts listed with email addresses at Greenwich Town Hall. Hackney Council head of comms Polly Cziok confirmed to the Citizen there is a “temporary arrangement” where two Greenwich staff members handle adverts for Hackney Today, receiving a cut of the revenue. Ms Cziok said this arrangement, which followed Hackney’s own advertising person taking voluntary redundancy in February, would likely last for “two or three months” until another solution is found. Outsourcing advertising staff – whatever next!
  • Always with their finger on the pulse, Hackney Council recently draped banners across the borough with the message “HACKNEY IS THE FASHION HUB”, with one word on each banner. The move backfired when people noticed the white-on-black “IS” banners looked like an expression of solidarity with the murderous terrorist group of the same name.
  • A new PR campaign for the Dalston Vibe development near Dalston Lane accidentally makes a pointed critique of social trends in the borough. A four-minute video showing off its swanky new flats and local amenities appeared to be set in an alternate universe where everyone in Hackney is white.