I'm usually pretty passive in my political stance, but every so often I get riled up and take action. Today is one of those days. T-Mobile released a commercial recently that really slams real estate agents AND uses the registered trademark name REALTOR without permission (As if the National Association of REALTORS woud give permission for such a nasty portrayal of their profession!). If you haven't seen the commercial, you can read about it here. The term REALTOR is a registered trademark and can only be used by permission or by members (See my blog entry for the difference between REALTOR and real estate agent), but with commercials like T-Mobile's, the terms are interchanged AND the actor does not portray the licensee as a professional. T-Mobile's response to misuse of the registered trademark REALTOR, is interesting. I really wonder if they realize there were 2.6 million licensees in the U.S. in 2005! That is a considerable market share to lose because they chose to portray agents as dishonest and not caring about their clients AND because they didn't do their research to find out that REALTOR is a registered trademark that cannot be used without permission. If T-Mobile considered that many of those real estate agents also have large calling plans (mine is 2000+ minutes), that could be a significant loss in business if agents change providers. I know I was considering T-Mobile but they eliminated my need to research them as an option. I'm certainly not going to support a company that doesn't respect my profession!
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