Unbelievably shallow real estate ad hints at recovery

Good news/bad news for New Yorkers: The housing market might be rebounding, but they’re now subjected to these ‘douchey’ ads. Plus, DirecTV takes a hit from SpongeBob, snakes needles on a plane, cat elected mayor in Alaska, and more.

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Life’s a tradeoff. The economy starts to improve, but then the worms crawl out of the woodwork. In the advertising world, those worms are high-end real estate marketing—particularly it’s awful copywriting. And the latest “douchey” print ads for Manhattan real estate are spreading like a disease. Here, Buzzfeed exposes the first reported breakout in New York.

Of course, advertising can also be a dirty sport, and I’m not just talking about presidential campaigns. Instead of working out negotiations privately, Viacom and DirecTV have taken their battle to the press, with Viacom landing the first blow in this full-page print ad from Sunday’s New York Times.

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