Faced with Twitter outrage, StreetEasy is pulling a ‘sexist’ ad

By Jordan Valinsky • February 22, 2016 •

StreetEasy is apologizing for a new ad that some are blasting as sexist.

Last week, the real estate portal rolled out a new campaign called “Find Your Formula” campaign in New York City that parodies the compromises people make in order to find a semi-decent place. The ads consist of jokingly drawn stereotypes of the city’s neighborhoods, like rats and roaches in the East Village or toxic waste in Brooklyn’s Gowanus area.

But there’s one ad in particular from the series that’s striking a chord on Twitter for being sexist because it’s implying that a finance bro should dump his presumably frumpy college girlfriend once he gets a raise and move into the bro-tastic Meatpacking District ‘hood.

“Please tell me that’s a parody,” writes one. Another person adds it’s “gross,” lamenting that StreetEasy’s ad agency should’ve known better. The website is pulling the ad because of the blowback and has issued an apology.

Status: Puking every organ out of my body from this @streeteasy ad pic.twitter.com/DRZa0yIX1d

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) February 22, 2016

“We sincerely apologize to those who interpreted this ad to be anything beyond what our goal was: to parody New York characters to capture the choices that renters and buyers make to live in the city we all love,” the company said in a statement. “The intention of this ad and all the creative in our campaign was never to upset or offend, so this reaction is something that we take very seriously and are taking action to remove it from the campaign’s rotation.”

As for the college girlfriend: She could have done better anyway.