Issaquah real estate agents under fire for sexist ad
Sep 16, 2015, 3:56 PM | Updated: 3:58 pm
One of the latest marketing tactics from Issaquah real estate agents has mother up in arms. (Image courtesy David Kaufer)
(Image courtesy David Kaufer)
An ad that came under heavy scrutiny for its depiction of working mothers does at least one thing: proves people are still stuck in the 1950s.
Issaquah real estate agents Chase and Jeff Costello mailed out a flyer that depicts a mother of three next to two men in suits and asks: “Part-time agent vs. full-time professionals — who would you want to represent you?”
Needless to say, women everywhere are outraged over the tactic.
“It’s 2015 and no one would ever print anything like that,” single mother and real estate agent Rachel Money told Q13 Fox News. “Then I turned it over and realized it had been sent out. It was in the mail in our mailbox.”
Well if an Issaquah real estate agent is sending out an advertisement like that, it must be true, quipped KIRO Radio’s John Curley. Agents wouldn’t pull something like that unless it’s a real situation.
Does this happen: “you call [a real estate agent who is also a mother] and say ‘I want to see this house,’ and she says ‘I can’t right now, I’m picking my kid up from school,'” Curley said. They are trying to show the difference between full-time and part-time agents, he added.
Well why not replace the mother with a father? wonders co-host Tom Tangney. It’s a sexist ad.
But there are females who are part-time agents and full-time mothers, Curley said. Well then where is the ad depicting a full-time male real estate agent who is corrupt?
When it comes to advertising someone is bound to use a cliché, Curley said. Take the elderly person who is having trouble getting out of a chair. Not all elderly people are having trouble getting up, but the ad is targeting that demographic.
The Costello team has since apologized.
We “apologize for our last marketing piece and we take full responsibility for it,” the Costellos said, according to Q13. “We have the utmost respect for working mothers.”
This is a real ad produced by a Seattle real estate brokerage firm. Wow – really guys? pic.twitter.com/F5oUcYorU7
— David Kaufer (@DavidKaufer) September 14, 2015
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