Real estate firm Costello and Costello were forced to apologise this week after appearing to mock busy working mums in an advertising campaign.
A flyer drawn up, printed and distributed by the firm outside of Seattle presented two side-by-side images: one of a stressed-out mum being tied up by her children, and another of two clean-cut, smiling businessmen; the images were labelled ‘Part Time Agent’ and ‘Full Time Professionals’ respectively.
At the bottom of the flyer, the words “Who Would You Rather Represent You?” were emblazoned. Meanwhile, on the flipside of the image of the mother were the words “available at their convenience, not yours”.
Needless to say, the implication that female real estate agents who have children don’t work as hard as their male counterparts horrified many.
After local outcry, Costello and Costello were forced to issue an apology, which was published to the company Facebook page.
“The Costello Team would like to apologise for our last marketing piece and we take full responsibility for it. We have received a flood of emotionally-charged messages and phone calls, and we thank you for your responses. As sons of a single working mother, and agents trying to build a family business, these reactions were difficult and important for us to hear,” the statement read.
They went on to insist that they “have the utmost respect for mums and working mothers”.
Let’s hope they have learned a valuable lesson here.
