Bold new ad from 'best looking' real estate agent divides Aussies: 'Good on him'
Melbourne real estate agent Noah Rezaie's new advertisement has got Australians from all over talking – just as he'd hoped.
A real estate agent's tongue-in-cheek advertisement offering the services of the "best looking agent" throughout his local suburb has left Australians in hysterics — and has had the intended result of boosting business, he claims.
Sometimes in Australia, real estate agents get a bad wrap. In the middle of one of the worst housing crises on record, many have been blasted for what's been described as "tone deaf" and "concerning" behaviour, particularly when it comes to boasting about profits amid a well-documented cost of living emergency.
On the other hand however, there are times when they've also been celebrated for their "clever" techniques in getting people through the door.
While one Melbourne agent's ad was met with criticism from some who thought it was "fairly cringe", others found the approach "actually funny" and reflective of his "good sense of humour".
Agent responds to 'successful' advertising campaign
Noah Rezaie of P&G Real Estate spoke to Yahoo News Australia about the viral advert, which has been plastered from top to bottom on the back of one public bus and since re-shared all over social media. It reads: "Voted #1 best-looking agent in Narre Warren South — *as voted by my mum", beside a metres-long image of Rezaie.
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According to the Melburnian, "the response has been really good" since the ad started out about a week ago and "we’ve got a lot of people reach out to us [since then]". "There’s been an increase in clients reaching out to me," Rezaie told Yahoo News Australia. "It has definitely made a big difference to my business, taking the light-hearted approach.
"We at P&G real estate pride ourselves as being different so we decided to take a different approach of advertising.
"My mum and the girls at the office always call me the best-looking in the area, so we thought it would be a good idea to use it as an advertisement," he joked.
Australians weigh in on viral real estate ad
Online, many saw the humour.
"I think it’s quite cute. Posting about it was exactly what he would’ve wanted," a person said in response. "The advertising worked," another said.
"This is going to be an unpopular opinion: But an REA's job is to get your house seen, talked about, and sold. You're all talking about him, this guy knows his sh*t," said another.
"You know what? That's actually funny. Good on him," wrote a fourth. "Honestly this kind of advertisement would get me to see the person. Good sense of humour and doesn't take themselves too seriously."
Meanwhile, others were critical of the strategy, but conceded the asterisk point "saved it". "Eh, it's fairly cringe, but the joke about his mum kinda salvages it somewhat," a responder commented.
Real estate ads not always well-received
Last month, Yahoo News Australia reported on a Queensland agent who appeared to mock people sleeping rough on social media.
The agent wrote beside an image of a rough sleeper in a park: "Tell me how [you] would market this", urging respondents to join in on the "joke", prompting people to share their thoughts with multiple laughing emojis.
As demand for social homes skyrockets, and at a time when tenants are paying increasingly high prices in rent, it's "concerning" to see "anyone making light of people in tents", one anti-homelessness advocate lamented to Yahoo News.
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