PHOTO: Was This Calgary Real Estate Agent’s BillBoard Too Racy ?

Since the advent of advertising, sex has been used to sell toothpaste, jeans, booze, cars and pretty much every other product under the sun, but some Calgary citizens are riled up over a suggestive billboard for allegedly employing a woman’s sex appeal to sell family homes. Imagine! Situated on a busy commuter route, the billboard features a closeup photograph of Re/Max agent Diana Arvatescu smiling warmly and favouring passing motorists with the line, “Let me take you home. It’s gorgeous inside.”

While not exactly a Calvin Klein underwear ad, the billboard generated controversy on a local level. A social work professor at the University of Calgary denounced the ad as “sexually inviting and provocative.” A rep for the Calgary Real Estate Board told Global TV Calgary that Arvatescu’s advertisement was outside the “best practices” standards for an agent.

More sobering, the billboard drew a response from Jeff Buziak, whose daughter Lindsay, a former real estate agent, was murdered while conducting an open house in Victoria five years ago. “It scares me that anyone would want to put an invitation out there,” Buziak told a reporter with The Canadian Press.