Flyer getting negative attention for use of acronym

Rent-to-own company getting attention for newest ad Easyhome, the country’s largest rent-to-own company is getting a lot of attention for its newest ad.

It’s a four-letter acronym used commonly online and in texts – but it’s use in a marketing campaign for a furniture company is raising eyebrows for some who received the flyer.

Easyhome’s recent flyer includes the use of ‘OMFG’, an acronym of ‘Oh My God’, with the addition of an expletive – the company has seen some backlash online since the flyer was distributed.

Edmonton marketing expert Scott Cunningham said this particular campaign would likely be more accepted if it was a digital ad, aimed at a younger audience.

“But if it’s an older crowd whose spending a lot of money and reading traditional ads, then it could be taken as offensive,” Cunningham said.

The company has already taken action on the ads, a spokesperson saying changes have been made to the campaign online.

“The acronym is commonly used to convey shock and disbelief rather than profanity…we did not intend to offend and as a result of some of the feedback we modified some of our online and digital creative,” Andrea Fiederer, CMO GoEasy LTD. said in a statement.

Canada’s advertising standards group says it has received complaints in the past when the same acronym was used in other campaigns. In one of those cases, the ads had to be taken down.

However, in this case, the Ad Standards Council hasn’t received complaints yet.

With files from Angela Jung