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'Notorious' estate axes PR
Evening Standard17 Nov 2008
A SOUTH London estate has ditched the PR company it hired to improve its image in the media.
The Aylesbury Estate in Walworth, dubbed "hell's waiting room" in one newspaper, hoped Hill & Knowlton would clean up its reputation for drug-dealing and murder. The firm was hired by the Creation Trust, a charity run by Aylesbury's 7,500 residents.
But the estate and PR firm parted ways after only a few weeks when the agency apparently failed to prevent negative words such as "notorious" creeping into press coverage.
Creation's chief executive, Steve Pearce, told PR Week that "getting comms right is key to the success of the regeneration programme."
Its PR offensive coincided with Southwark council's £2.4billion redevelopment, including bulldozing 40 concrete blocks to make way for 5,000 new homes over 15 years.
Reader views (3)
Creation thinks memories based on decades of problems can be wiped away with a few nice words from a PR agency? Think again. It amazes me how after 10 years of funding, so little has been achieved.
- Nina, London, England, 18/11/2008 11:54
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try using the money to fund community help projects that might alleviate the drug and crime problems rather than hiring a PR company to tell everyone its a lovely little place to live. idiots
- Ag, The Village of London, 17/11/2008 13:58
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The only way to improve the estate is to remove the troublemakers. Unfortunatly this only moves the problem elsewhere. Hopefully bulldozing it, will be the way forward.
- Triffidqueen, Desk in London, 17/11/2008 13:02
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