I am not crazy. I am not delusional. I have seen subtle nuances and I have seen images that strike me upside my head. I imagine the line from an old country song truly describes me.
"And them that don't know him won't like him and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him. He ain't wrong, he's just different but his pride won't let him do things to make you think he's right"
There is a mild uproar occurring within the real estate community. The National Association of Realtors has produced yet another commercial extolling the value of home ownership. Most of the angst I have heard delicately dances around the issue portrayed in this recent boondoggle. People are lambasting the NAR regarding their negative portrayal of those that rent homes rather than own them. A lot of people point out that if consumers had not bought into the "own your own home" frenzy of the mid-2000's, there might not be as many empty foreclosed homes as exist today.
Some point out that the negative equity being felt from sea to shining sea would be no where as large as it is if the dynamic duo of "Madison Avenue and the NAR" had not filled the public's mind with the illusion that everyone could have everything. I can not say that I disagree with most of those comments. I suppose that I do fall on the side of personal responsibility for one's actions, but I am willing to concede that there is some complicity on advertisers. (If they did not have the power to persuade, commercials for the Super Bowl would not be that expensive.}
The latest ad, currently being shared with millions of television viewers crosses bigger lines. The voice over shares the implications of owning a home. It points out in a very subtle fashion the implied benefits of home ownership as they relate to learning and future success. Watch the video. I will share my thoughts below.
In the preamble to the National Association of Realtors, it is shared "The term REALTOR® has come to connote competency, fairness, and high integrity resulting from adherence to a lofty ideal of moral conduct in business relations. No inducement of profit and no instruction from clients ever can justify departure from this ideal."
You have to dig deep to get to the crux of the matter. If you perusing the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, go down to Article 10, section 3.
Standard of Practice 10-3 REALTORS® shall not print, display or circulate any statement or advertisement with respect to selling or renting of a property that indicates any preference, limitations or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, or sexual orientation. (Adopted 1/94, Renumbered 1/05 and 1/06, Amended 1/11)
If you watched the advertisement, you saw a pretty little blonde headed white girl. She plays with her dark haired white brother. She does a puzzle, her brother studies, while her white dad reads the paper in the back ground. Little Sophie is on her way to success. The subtle message seems to be that successful folks are lily white, living in the suburbs, actively pursuing the American Dream. It is apparent the message carried by Disney for so long is alive and well in the backrooms of ad agencies. If you are a blue eyed blonde and your daddy cares, you can be a princess too. If you are a person of color, the ad excludes you. If you are not Anglo Saxon, the ad excludes you. If you are single, the ad excludes you. If you have no children, the ad excludes you.
The advertisement is disgusting on many levels.
Let me be very clear on this. Owning a home does not make you a better parent any more than owning a gun makes you a mass murderer. The true character of anyone is found in how they live their life and not where they choose to live it.
All the things that the NAR purports to protect are ignored in this advertisement. I am not asking the NAR to be politically correct. I am asking them to stop embarrassing all of the agents they are deemed to represent.
STOP THE MADNESS
Home ownership is but one goal that individuals may choose regarding housing. It is damn near criminally irresponsible to continue to exhort people that may not be in a valid financial situation to purchase a home to do so. This country was not founded on the principle of life, liberty and home ownership. We remain the country that was founded on the principles of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It should be no surprise that various choices in how, where and why we live are all valid.
People of color, people of all races, people in all sorts of housing raise children that are successful. Parenting is a much bigger issue than address. Statistics can be garnered to show the advantage of home ownership. They can also be put together to show the absolute destruction of families across the country that have lost everything as the result of buying a home that was beyond their means. The rush to home ownership has left millions of people in properties that are worth significantly less than what is owed on them. The fact that a disproportionate number of those that have failed are people of color has more to do with the power of advertising that it has to do with their race or ethnicity.
Dig a bit deeper. You may discover that the truth is found in education. Educated people make better decisions. And lots of educated people are still renting, waiting for the dust to clear on the housing market that is in shambles. Attempting to convince people that home ownership is the magic potion to success helped crumble the housing industry. Using the same logic to jump start the industry is stupid.
Find a better way to share that benefits of owning a home, and while you are at it, try to make your commercials reflect people from all walks of life. It is 2012, Fair Housing has been on the books for almost half a century. People are getting tired of success always being portrayed as a comfortable, picture perfect white family in the beautifully landscaped suburbs.
P.S. - to my wonderfully supportive wife Lourdes, yes honey, I have seen the monsters again and I just can't sit quietly by. ly ymg
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