Costello and Costello Real Estate Group of Issaquah, Washington recently sent out this mailer to prospective clients:
Check out this real estate ad- it already prompted an apology. Story at 5:59pm >http://t.co/kooNzQxUkJ @KIRO7Seattle
Alison Grande, a reporter for KIRO 7 in Seattle, first tweeted the story.
Let's look at that again.
Wait, what?
The back of the flier then pits the benefits of the Costello Team against the working mother, claiming that she's "available at THEIR convenience not yours."
I know, right? Because moms are so annoying, always trying to take care of their children. There is definitely no way that parents who spend time with their kids could possibly be focused on their work, too.
Although the Costello Group has since deleted their company Facebook page, CBS Seattle reported a sampling of the comments that had been left by irate locals:
"Very disrespectful to insinuate a woman can't fulfill responsibilities as a mother and real estate agent."
"I am sorry that you feel the need to belittle the working mother to make yourselves look like professionals!"
"This ad is so offensive to woman and men everywhere. I would hope that you are taking a long hard look at your marketing firm over this ad placement as well as who approved it in your own firm. Extremely unfortunate choice of advertising."
For their part, after being flooded with negative feedback from those who received the mailer, the Costellos issued a swift apology.
"The Costello Team would like to apologize for our last marketing piece and we take full responsibility for it. We have received a flood of emotionally charged messages and phones 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.
"There are thousands of professional agents working in our area who are also dedicated mothers, including several members of our team. Our original hope with this message was to show the value of having a full-time agent in a competitive market, but we completely failed. We have the upmost (sic) respect for moms and working mothers, and we know that the job of a mother is far more demanding than what we do as real estate professionals. Again, we are truly sorry." - Costello and Costello Real Estate, via Facebook
Who would you rather represent you?
BuzzFeed Life has reached out to Alison Grande for comment.