An “easy as a 25-year-old blonde on scotch” marketing campaign has landed a local development company in hot water with a group of Calgarians.
Point of View’s MidTown Calgary Condos ads can be seen above urinals at various Calgary watering holes and have since ignited a heated debate on social media sites Twitter and Facebook.
“As an advertising professional I get the idea, but the execution is missing the point and comes across in poor taste,” Jillian Yaehne said.
The ads in question contain the slogan; “a $20,000 down payment is as easy as a 25-year-old scotch, or a 25-year-old blonde on a 25-year-old scotch. Get on it.”
Marketing manager for Point of View, Clark Hogan, defended the ads saying they were never meant to be offensive.
“We didn’t intend for these ads to be sexist and we’re actually surprised because this is the first we have heard of any negative feedback,” Hogan said, adding the ads were part of a bigger marketing campaign.
Rhiannon MacDonnell was one of several Calgarians to take offence to the ads and join an anti-MidTown Calgary Facebook group.
“The ads struck a chord but even more so was the fact we wrote on the company’s Facebook wall expressing our disappointment and they deleted the comments and banned some of the people,” she said.
Newad, who designed the ads for Point of View, told Metro they have “no comment at this time.”
