Phil and Kirsty mustn't know what's hit them. The fallout from their slur on Middlesbrough has had far-reaching consequences, and it has prompted customers' champion Moneyway to commission an original piece of street-art based on the town.
OneBill from Moneyway has commissioned award-winning international artist Richard Henderson to create a mural celebrating all that is great about the town.
Gary Jennison, chief executive at Moneyway, said that the company had commissioned the piece in response to the reaction from Middlesbrough-
"We have had more conversations than you would credit about this in the past week and a half," said Gary.
"We have customers all over the UK and people in all 20 towns that were identified are furious that their home-towns are being dismissed in this way.
"We do have branches in some of the towns that were slated, and our colleagueswho work and live in those areas were furious, but that is nothing compared to the reaction of our customers up in Middlesbrough.
The OneBill from Moneyway team have a really special relationship with our customers and chat about anything and everything, and this has pretty much been the topic of the week. The phones have been red hot. The team spoke to me and said that we should make a stand on behalf of our customers, so we are!"
Richard Henderson is working on a top secret mural which will be given to the people of Middlesbrough next week as a ‘We think your town is great!' gift.
Gary said: "Richard is internationally renowned and has won stacks of awards and exhibited all over the world. We've been lucky to get him - he is working in Tokyo and Italy within the next month, but he has a great idea to show Middlesbrough in its best light. We want the people of the town to take pride in it.
"We've told him he has to consider all the things that stand out in the minds of the people in Middlesbrough - we spoke to our customers and they talked about the countryside, the coast, the iconic transporter bridge, Roseberry Topping and the Riverside stadium, and we have given Richard all of that feedback to work his magic.
"We've asked him to complete it on canvas so that we can present it to the town and the people can choose where to display it. We hope that this will go some way toward showing that just because we're not based in their town, we have customers who are and they have our total support," he added.
