Saturday, December 21, 2013

MAC Marketing's version of 'Where's Waldo'?



Remember the MAC Marketing crossword puzzle? We made a post about it back on June 11th, 2013.

Hilarity ensued over in the comments section of one of Vancouver's leading real estate chat sites when Vancouver Condo Info advised that the infamous MAC Marketing Solutions (you remember them... the condo marketing firm exposed for lying to and deceiving the public on TV) had come out with a Vancouver real estate-themed crossword puzzle contest to celebrate their 50th contributing article to the publication New Condo Guide.

The post generated a slew of responses on VCI, most making suggestions for MAC about potential crossword clues and answers:








One VCI contributor even crafted his own version of the crossword.

Well now MAC Marketing seems to have another game for us to play. MAC's 2013 holiday greeting is out and it not only reminds us of their summer time crossword puzzle, but also of the famous  "Where's Waldo" puzzles. 

Simply add numbers to this gallery of MAC personalities and we can play "where are the 2013 MAC scandal employees." 

(click on image to enlarge):


In case you have forgotten who those employees are, let's recap. First there is the infamous 'Chris Lee'.

Chris is fake name for the MAC Marketing sales assistant who, along with MAC administrative assistant Amanda Lee, presented themselves as house-hunting sisters to CBC-TV and CTV-BC.  Here is a screenshot of 'Chris' from the CBC story:

After the scandal we noted she was still working for MAC. Can you spot her in the MAC holiday greeting?

Next there is Amanda Lee:


Here is a CTV screenshot of Amanda next to one of Amanda Lee's Facebook photos (which initially caused us to question the whole deception): 


'Chris' and Amanda claimed they are primary scouting for a condo in advance of their parents arrival from China for the Lunar New Year.  Supposedly their parents were coming to help them purchase a condo.

Once exposed, CTV pulled no punches in capturing the essence of their story in one shot:


In addition to Chris and Amanda, there was also the older blonde MAC sales rep who quarterbacked the fake condo buying sisters through the Maddox sales centre for the TV deception. Here is a screenshot from the CBC story:


Is she in the MAC holiday greeting?

Let's not forget the MAC sales director who possibly set up the photo shoot, Melanie Briggs. CBC-TV reporter Matthew Black advises Briggs was supposed to be in attendance at the media spot but was a no-show. Was she involved in the pre-planning of this deception?


For bonus points you can hunt for Janet Frost, MAC Marketing's Director of Sales. In an unrelated episode, Frost was suspended for 21 days by the RECBC for misconduct while associated with Maverick Real Estate (see this post and this post).


You could also check to see if Sharon Matsumoto is there. Ms. Matsumoto was the subject of an April 15th, 2013 RECBC disciplinary decisionWe posted about the decision and the fact that google showed numerous links between Ms. Matsumoto and MAC Marketing. Presumably she isn't currently with MAC, but who knows for sure?


Last, but not least, there is MAC Marketing President Cameron MacNeill:


In the Vancouver Sun McNeill stated:
“I don’t know all the details about what precisely happened that day. I want to get to the bottom of this. I don’t know if it was an overzealous employee or if this happened in a formalized way.”
All-in-all it looks like great holiday fun as you hunt for these seven leading 2013 MAC Marketing personalities. How many could you 'find'?

Hopefully 2014 will bring some results on the RECBC investigation into the scandal and we can find out answers to the questions McNeill himself asked. Because we're sure if all this happened in a formalized' way, condo buyers would want to know… especially if the employees involved in any 'formalized' deception are still active in selling real estate.

For those who may have missed it, here is the CBC coverage of the scandal:

 
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6 comments:

  1. Great post.

    But Confucius says - "The more things change, the more they remain the same."

    In this new world order of deceit and deception media handling of mess up, fess up, dress up , the story gets buried and the snake has a new head when it reappears.

    Honesty has turned into a concept and buzz word twitter post like - "Honesty, what a concept."

    Cheers,

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  2. Does this sort of thing occur in other cities?

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    Replies
    1. Like fake white buyers in Chongqing, you mean?

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  3. I'm glad MacGate exposed the media as being complicit, if not engaging in willful blindness, in the whole meme of Condo Frenzy. After this any member of the media will tread lightly when evaluating the claims of condo marketers.

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  4. When compared with the shenanigans made by the financial/banking sectors, MAC marketing's misdeeds are small fries! But one can argue that the rot starts at the top, and MAC marketing is the downstream result of an industry that has foregone ethics.

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  5. Camron McNeil has been pumping all things China as the great miracle of the 21st century. Do you think he cares that most if not all of the money coming out of China is directly from corrupt government officials siphoning money out of state run companies, and flooding our market with illegal money inflating our real estate prices? The answer is no. He doesn't care, he just wants a piece of the pie. The hell with everybody else.

    Western society and media tend to brush these claims off as racist, but that is simply just lazy logic. If you dig deeper, and get the information direct from the horses mouth, you'll see that what some had feared as true, turns out to be exactly what is going on. I encourage people to watch China Forbidden News on YouTube. Here is a news clip specifically about corrupt money flooding the Vancouver market http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgtRVArcmgA.

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