WikimediaAn ominous black banner simply reading ‘IS’ is believed to be part of a bungled marketing stunt for a local shopping centre.
The banner was reportedly hung, in the London borough of Hackney, from a lamppost and marked with the initials of one of the worlds most notorious jihadi groups.
Alan Wolfson, who spotted the embarrassing flag on Morning Lane in Hackney, took a quick photo of the banner and the image quickly began to be shared on Facebook, The Huffington Post reports.
Hackney are draping banners around claiming HACKNEY IS FASHION . There’s no sign of the sequence of that sentence other than This solitary black flag outside Tesco with IS on it. Well done Hackney Council.
Posted by Alan Wolfson on Sunday, 27 March 2016
It was initially reported that the banner was put up by Hackney council and was one in a series intended to create the sentence ‘HACKNEY IS FASHION’.
Wolfson apparently said there was ‘no sign’ of the other banners in the set except for the single IS flag outside a Tesco.
WikimediaHe wrote:
Hackney are draping banners around claiming it IS THE FASHION HUB. There’s no sign of the sequence of that sentence other than a solitary black flag with IS on it. Well done.
However a spokesman for Hackney Council told the Metro that they didn’t put the banner up, although he confirmed he’s seen the flag.
The incident’s left people online laughing with one commenter remarking ‘Great PR’, while another simply said ‘facepalm’.
Maybe next time it’d be better to have a nice safe leafleting campaign?
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.