Would You Buy And Drink Outdated Milk?
February 14, 2008
Have you ever gone to the grocery store and purchased a gallon of milk without paying attention to the expiration date labeled on the container?
I have and it’s not a pleasant experience that awaits at by any means.
You get home, pour yourself a nice tall glass of milk, crack open the package of Oreo’s, commence to split the first Oreo (I’m a dunker!) and you take the time to make sure the Oreo does not break unevenly and dip the un-coated side into your glass of milk. Then you eat the moist chocolate cookie and then you realize…something just isn’t right. So you smell the glass and doggone it the milk is sour. Then you go to the kitchen and pour out the sour milk and watch the chunky remnants go down the drain. It’s enough to make you want to throw up.
Well today, I read a few reports that compelled me to perform additional due diligence. I was reading a few articles and watching the commercials that the National Association of Realtors have been executing as a part of their brand new $40 Million advertising campaign. You know, it’s the campaign that has been panned by Advertising Age magazine so vehemently that the AdAge writer relegated Realtors to being ever so porcine-like. The one where they tell you how great a time to buy it is right now…yeah that one!
Well in the commercial the viewer is directed to Housing Market Facts because in the spot the model talks about how real estate is the great wealth builder. She states, and the message is superimposed on the screen that “60% of the average homeowner’s wealth is from their home’s equity”. That is an amazing statistic. Thank you NAR…but wait, what’s the little text on the bottom of the screen that MOST will never read and is only on the screen for a little over a quick 3 seconds?
Well, on the bottom of the screen for that brief 3+/- seconds in the tiniest of print is the source of that statistic. Let me inform you, if you have not as of yet seen the commercial or perhaps missed it when it aired, this is the only statistic featured or even mentioned in the commercial spot. So based upon its feature status, it must be pretty damn important and relevant.
Well leave it to my counterpart on our radio show. The man with a plan, Barry J blew up the commercial so he could see the source. Once he had the info he found the location of that source. Being the great forensic real estate operative that he is, he printed out the document that was the source of the $40 Million dollar commercial and we were absolutely stunned.
The source for the featured statistic, the point of reference for every viewer to hang their hat on, the money shot in a plan to combat negativity in the real estate sector, was none other that the Urban Policy Brief, Number 2, A Department Of Housing and Urban Development Study that was released…in 1995!
Yes, we have all been served a very chunky glass of stale, old, putrid milk. I feel sick and most assuredly want to throw up. Imagine how I would feel if I were a dues paying member of the NAR?
Far worse, what do you think the economic world and consumers who find this out are going to think about the credibility of the National Association of Realtors? Think it won’t affect your ability to conduct business?
What kind of economic mind game are the leaders of the NAR playing? They base a $40 Million Dollar advertising campaign on data that is over a decade old and they don’t think anybody is going to notice?
How relevant is the Urban Policy Brief, Number 2, of August 1995 in today’s real estate market?
If that was not bad enough, it’s also important that you know the reason the report was commissioned. The report was created as a result of a request by then President Bill Clinton to provide “a brief survey of research into the nature and significance of homeownership’s presumed benefits, particularly for lower income households and other underserved populations”.
The report goes on to say that those with lower than average incomes and educational attainment make those same prospects particularly vulnerable to economic downturns that can result in job loss and, eventually…foreclosure.
In promoting homeownership in this current market, and spending $40 Million dollars to tell everyone that it is a good time to buy, while knowing we are most assuredly in at minimum, an economic downturn in the housing sector, the NAR seems extremely reckless, careless and misrepresenting in its approach.
Need further information as to the possibility that the NAR is complicit in playing a game of 3-Card-Monte with the American public?
Yesterday, Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist for the NAR spoke to the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors. In his luncheon speech, Yun said that the media is to blame for blowing the housing crisis out of proportion. He also said that “short-term losses have actually brought the markets back to healthy levels”. That’s actually great news for all of us in the real estate industry. Too bad he seemingly lied or his speechwriter drank some of the chunky milk that the NAR has been serving up.
Regaining his senses, he and his colleagues wised up, a mere one day later, and said that the markets had not stabilized and that we are mired in the worst housing market in recorded history. Wow, now that’s one huge flip-flop!
I just have one question after seeing this ongoing NAR confidence scheme. That question is, are you as a member of this organization going to get with your other Realtor brethren and storm the castle and demand change or are you going to sit quietly and drink the chunky milk?
Comes a time when enough is enough don’t you think?
I knew NAR was putting out not so real data. They don’t want their membership base to dwendle.
[...] Wilson takes it with Would You Buy And Drink Outdated Milk? posted at Real Estate Radio USA.Here are the rest of the posts in no particular [...]
[...] forget Pine Needle’s pick of the week: ‘Would You Buy and Drink Outdated Milk?’ by Brett Wilson of Real Estate Radio USA And of course head on over to Pine Needle Lawn to read [...]
[...] have saved the $40 Million it spent on the “Great Time To Buy Campaign” which was DOA when it was unveiled. While I agree it is indeed a great time to buy, the message was futile and lost. It should have [...]
[...] have saved the $40 Million it spent on the “Great Time To Buy Campaign” which was DOA when it was unveiled. While I agree it is indeed a great time to buy, the message was futile and lost. It should have [...]
That was an eye-opening piece! I’m gonna definitely pass this one on!!
test
[...] and credibility are both at all time lows. Instead of spending millions of dollars on frivolous “dead on arrival” advertising campaigns, perhaps it should really seek to implement a campaign that seeks to instill consumer [...]