A real estate advertisement circulating around Seattle this week asks potential buyers and sellers, “Who would you rather represent you?”
The ad has come under scrutiny, though, for pitting Chase and Jeffrey Costello of Costello and Costello Real Estate Group against … this:
The Costellos, in an effort to show that they work as a team and full time, decided to slam a working mother as an example of the opposite.
On the back side, the duo lists what they can provide vs. what the mom does, most notably that they are “Available at THEIR convenience.”
No, you definitely don’t want working moms to represent you since their children are around ALL THE TIME (as well as a duck apparently).
Also, she is literally tied up by kids and has marker on her face. How can you expect to be taken seriously in that crazy environment?!
It’s hard to see this as anything but misogynistic, as it’s so far overboard that whatever point they hoped to make is completely obscured.
Not surprisingly, the backlash to the ad caused the pair to take their website down and issue an apology via Facebook. It reads:
“There are thousands of professional agents working in our area who are also dedicated mothers, including several members of our team."
"Our original hope with this message was to show the value of having a full-time agent in a competitive market, but we completely failed."
"We have the upmost respect for moms and working mothers, and we know that the job of a mother is far more demanding than what we do."
"Again, we are truly sorry.”
Note to Chase and Jeff:
- It’s utmost, guys;
- You may want to hire a mother with kids to help with your marketing … not only will they not be absurdly sexist, they’re great at multitasking.
