Redrow pulls American Psycho themed promo vid amidst Twitter backlash
House builder Redrow has canned an American Psycho themed promo-video flogging luxury apartments in the deprived London borough of Tower Hamlets after being hit by a social media backlash.
Starring a suited model the 100 second clip follows a day in the vacuous life of a city office worker before he returns to his apartment to collapse in bed accompanied by a ludicrously over the top voiceover.
The narrator intones: “Yes, they say nothing comes easy,” he growls. “But if it was easy, then it wouldn’t feel as good. To look out at the city that could have swallowed you whole and say ‘I did this’. To stand, with the world at your feet.”
Twitter users immediately criticised the beyond satire piece for inadvertently highlighting the detachment from reality of the rich in the capital, with the penthouse in question currently on the market for £4m.
https://t.co/ITItZTCodm A glimpse into the psychotic mental state of housing in London - Redrow Homes / American Psycho mashup
— Jim Mortram (@JAMortram) January 5, 2015
A new low in the genre of dystopian / beyond-satire property ads from Redrow Homes. http://t.co/uOHhmvqMg4
— Alastair Parvin (@AlastairParvin) January 4, 2015
Redrow has since pulled the piece after conceding that its marketing team ‘didn’t get it quite right with this one’.