The marketing for Ward 8's newest affordable housing project has me confused

Initially my plan was to share this flyer.

Editor’s Note: So usually this would be where I would add a “Learn More” button that would link to the website of the development and while I am still going to do that; it comes with a little caveat. I’m in marketing, it’s what I do and I use stock photos a lot, they are helpful when photos aren’t readily available and they make the posts more attractive - I get it. And sometimes I’m left with few options when it comes to stock photos - prime example, the mockups for the Southeast Love shirts are all Caucasian models because as luck would have it the app the printer uses has white models for all the products I selected for this round of printing (that said, I did ask them if it was possible to integrate more diversity in their stock photos).

But I don’t think that was the case here. Someone put together this website, my guess either someone from DCHA or a contractor hired to create a website and off all the stock photos they selected as the header they chose this one? Five millennials and only one of them a person of color — for a project in Ward 8?

Hmmmm….

I’m writing this post from an apartment building west of the river near a “hip” commercial cooridor and this stock photo doesn’t even reflect the demographic of my new neighbors! Lol! While I am sure this was not meant to be a slight, I am curious why this stock photo was selected over others.

I just had to ask, if a picture speaks a thousand words what was the intended message here?

P.S. Full-disclosure, I’m a marketing consultant, a Ward 8 based marketing consultant so I’m a bit salty someone with clearly a poor idea of “the culture” got a check for this. I have to keep it 100 here.

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