By now, you've heard of Rich Will Wanket (his real name!), the real-estate agent in Minneapolis who created the ad above, playing off his name's masturbatory connotations. We wrote about the ad last week.
Since then, new information has emerged. It turns out the ad isn't that old. It ran in July (in the local edition of The Onion, appropriately enough, though it's not a joke ad). And it apparently got Wanket fired from his job at Edina Realty. "It's not a message that we feel is reflective of our brand," Edina's vp of marketing tells the City Pages.
Wanket himself has given a couple of interviews. In that same City Pages story, he says: "I've been getting a lot of calls since the ad took off. Not all of them have been from people who want to buy or sell a house, but that's not really the point. I just wanted to get my name out there." Mission accomplished, Wanket!
In a separate interview with Real Estate Webmasters, he reflects on the whole saga. "One of the major objectives of any salesperson is to get name recognition," he says. "I have a funny name and I thought I would use it to my advantage. ? I have been saddled, so to speak, with this name for 40 years and I might as well get some use out of it." He adds: "The major reaction has been positive, about the ad, and about my name. I have had some obscene responses?people are idiots?but mostly it has been affirmation." He intends to stay in real estate.
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Originally Posted by richmediaseo
