Landlords blast banks for ‘Scrooge’ adverts
Representatives of the country’s property owners demanded yesterday that banks immediately withdraw several advertising campaigns which, they claimed, portray landlords as loathsome misers in a bid to encourage customers to take out mortgages and buy their own homes. The head of the Panhellenic Federation of Real Estate Owners (POMIDA), Stratos Paradias, wrote to the Hellenic Bank Association claiming that a series of TV and radio advertisements, run by several banks, and promotional material had recently been giving the impression that landlords were «anti-social, racist, ill-mannered and argumentative.» An Emporiki Bank ad shows a sour-faced landlady and asks readers: «Why live in her house, and not in your own?» Paradias said the ads had been particularly harsh on landladies, likening them to the evil character of Mme Thernadier from the Victor Hugo novel «Les Miserables.»
