Realtor? Jerkwad? The decision is yours.

Back when I worked in ad agencies, we were always wary of new clients, especially the smaller ones.  This is because one big mistake they make is that they think we are in the business of telling the world how great they are, when we would really rather talk about their products and services. 

Even at my current job, there are a few loan officers who insist I talk about their college educations, wealthy upbringing and perfect teeth in their press ads. 

While driving to East Texas last weekend, I spotted an annoying local real estate agent who has decided to expand his narcissistic series of billboards to the sticks.  We see him - his name is Rogers Healy - together with the message HOWDY, EAST TEXAS.

I wonder who thought that up? It's not original, and since I spent 10 years in East Texas, I thought it vaguely insulting. It's like he thinks we're all peckerwoods, or perhaps members of the Clampett family, so he needs to speak our lingo. 

While I didn't photograph the offending sign - it's hard to do this while driving 70 mph - I did find one of his other, slightly less offensive billboards. But why blow up your mug shot so large? And when will this guy learn that stubble has been out of fashion for several years?

 The billboards most probably won't be going away any time soon, because Rogers (I keep wanting to spell it Roger) thinks they work. Two years ago, he made this claim in an interview for a local magazine:

The billboards have been great. Marketing is our strongest suit,” says Healy, the 36-year-old founder of Rogers Healy and Associates Real Estate and several other companies. “People recognize our logo, our face, our colors.

If marketing really was his strongest suit, he'd stop mixing up so many fonts in his ads. Readers actually have a subconscious aversion to reading things composed in Font Soup. I counted four different fonts in the billboard alone.