New Logo Developed for Equal Housing Program : Advertising Symbol Designed to Demonstrate That Purchase Opportunities Are Available to All People
The Southland’s home building industry, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing have developed a new logo and slogan to replace the existing equal housing opportunity symbol that has been used for 20 years.
At a news conference last week, Tom Honore, director of fair housing and equal opportunity at HUD, said that “we perceived a real problem in the unintentional use of human models in advertising campaigns for new houses. Almost all were Caucasians, sending a subtle but strong negative signal to members of other ethnic groups.”
The new advertising logo incorporates the existing “equal” symbol in a stylized house along with drawings of a variety of ethnic groups and the slogan “You Can Share the Dream.” In addition to English, the logo and an explanatory message are also available in Spanish and Chinese.
The logo and two public service television spots resulted from a Fair Housing Advertising Task Force that included representatives of the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, advertising agencies, fair housing organizations, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
“We want everybody to share the dream of home ownership,” said Don Steffensen of the Lusk Co., president of the Building Industry Assn.
In response to a question, Honore said the task force concentrated on advertising for new housing because of the extensive use of human models in photographs and drawings in the ads. Existing housing advertising, covered by other marketing agreements, does not have such widespread use of human models in display ads, he said at the conference held at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club.
The 10- and 30-second public service announcements were developed by Hubbert Advertising, RAP Communications and Nelson & Gilmore, with production facilities furnished by KCOP Channel 13.
