A steamy real estate promo video featuring flirtatious models playfully chasing each other around a luxury pad has drawn ridicule from across the globe on social media, causing the red-faced Australian real estate franchise that originally posted it to quickly apologize and take the ad offline.
LJ Hooker Bankstown, a Sydney-based brokerage, posted the video, in which the couple dance, strut and swim in a pool before heading to the bedroom. Sam Nader, an agent who works with the company, arranged for footage of the high-end New South Wales home to be shot in the style of a R&B music video.
Response to the video, however, was swift. While some viewers found it funny, many others said it was embarrassing or reflected poorly on the industry. Some even pointed out that the woman in the wedding photos on the wall was not the same as the one making out in the house.
Many, however, were quick to defend Nader, who told other media outlets that he frequently accompanies his listings with fun real estate videos.
“If I was a homeowner and I saw what Sam Nader did to sell my house I would be over the moon. Don’t let anybody discourage you from continuing with your ideas,” Brent Crawford, a Toronto-based real estate agent, wrote on Facebook.
The company removed the video from its site but, as it had already gone viral, some users had re-uploaded it on YouTube. LJ Hooke Bankstown has also canceled an open house for the house due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
“Due to unforeseen circumstances the open house tonight is cancelled,” reads the company’s Facebook post. “Please register your interest via the LJ Hooker Bankstown website to arrange for a private inspection.”
“LJ Hooker Bankstown is always looking for new ways to market our listings, however this time we missed the mark,” a spokeswoman said in a statement provided to CNN.
In the industry, agents sometimes make the choice to use quirky listing photos or videos for getting extra views through ‘shock value’ — although the connection between this kind of attention and actual sales is foggy at best.
One agent once spent $50,000 recreating the ‘Dougie’ rap for a luxurious property while another caught flack from real estate organizations for posting home photos of models posing in their underwear.