Housing advertisement unethical

A recent advertisement making a weird claim just to sell more apartments has raised people's concerns because, among other things, it is disrespectful to women, says an article on JSChina.net. Excerpts:

A property developer in Deyang, Sichuan province, says in its advertisement that it will "give you a wife if you buy a house", inviting public criticism, with some people saying that the ad should be banned.

The property developer claims its intention was to tell homebuyers: "Give the house to your wife". But the ad uses an absurd catch line that has a totally different meaning - it seems to be used just to attract public attention and arouse discussion.

The real estate market has been sluggish over the past few months with apartment sales shrinking. This has promoted many real estate developers to use catchy ads to attract potential homebuyers and increase business. But in its attempt to be creative, the Deyang ad has had a negative impact on people. By regarding wives as objects, it has shown disrespect to women and is thus against social ethics and violates advertisement regulations. The deceptive ad shows that property developers are at their wit's end because of the shrinking property market.

Market competition means competition of product quality, prices, services and credibility, and property developers also have to follow the same competition rules. If property developers don't make efforts to improve the quality of the apartments they build and sell, lower their prices and provide better services to attract homebuyers, but use gimmicks instead to increase sales, they will only end up losing customers and hurting their business.