Debbie Hanlon faces criticism for real estate ads featuring prisoner of war

St. John's Coun. Debbie Hanlon is coming under fire for her use of images of a prisoner of war in a marketing campaign promoting her real estate business.

One of her ads posted to Instagram over the weekend tells the story of Yang Kyoungjong, a Korean prisoner of war who was forced to fight for three different countries during the Second World War.

Kyoungjong was enlisted against his will in 1938 to fight for Japan. While fighting, he was captured by the Soviets, and then again by the Nazis.

Hanlon's ad, posted to Instagram on June 16, features Kyoungjong's picture, story and, at the bottom, suggests Hanlon is a real estate agent who "fights" for her clients.

"I get a phone call from some woman screaming at me on the phone saying I'm a racist pig," she said.

"Me! Like I'm so shocked, I started to cry."

'This is a personal attack'

In addition to phone calls, there's also been backlash online with people questioning Hanlon's judgment and calling her names.

"This is so disrespectful" one comment on Hanlon's now deleted Instagram post read.

This is online bullying at its finest. And I'm the victim.- Debbie Hanlon

"This is some real #whitenonsense," reads another. "What the bananas were you thinking?!"

Hanlon, who has written a children's book entitled I'm No Bully and performs as Miss Debbie, a character against bullying, calls the criticism bullying.

"Go on and read those comments that people are talking about me, personally," she said. "This is a personal attack."

According to Hanlon, the ad was created by a marketing professional four years ago as part of a larger campaign, Keeping it Real Estate.

Hanlon said hundreds of short-story ads were made using the same tidbit-and-call-me template meant to bring about "a smile or a little 'Oh, I didn't know that.'"

"I didn't particularly pick anything, it's a random fact," Hanlon said. "There's over a thousand of them, that just happens to be one in the pile of a thousand, and it was a soldier."

Her team publishes the ads on social media and sends hard copies to clients.

"That particular ad about soldier Jong — I can't even say his last name — from Korea, that's been posted at least eight times in the last three years," Hanlon said.

"So all of a sudden, somebody has a problem with it? No. This is online bullying at its finest. And I'm the victim."

She's taken the ad about Kyoungjong down, and said she is apologizing to anyone who was offended by it.

"The idea was, this gentleman had survived tremendous odds. He wasn't a turncoat, he was a prisoner of war," Hanlon said.

"He got caught, he had to fight again and again, so his survival was fighting, so the two are not — the two swing back to each other, but that's just a marketing play on words. The idea was, it's just an interesting fact. That's all."

'This is an online bullying issue'

Meanwhile, Hanlon plans to pursue charges against people she feels have attacked, adding she's already made first steps with police.

"This is an online bullying issue and I've never experienced it before, and I don't know what kids would do," she said, adding that after this experience, she can sympathize with youth being bullied online.

"Sure no wonder some of the poor darlings want to take their lives, because this weekend was a really, really, really hard weekend for me."

Dead taxi driver ad

In the controversy around this latest ad, some of Hanlon's other ads have also caught people's attention.

One is of a deceased Puerto Rican taxi driver, Victor Perez Cardona, who had requested he be propped up in his cab at his wake.

Hanlon's ad shows a picture from the service and tells people to phone her if they need a ride related to her business.

"The gentleman that was in his Puerto Rican cab, he wanted to be there," she said. "And it was used in other marketing campaigns. I'm not the first one to use it."

The ad was posted on Twitter June 1, but has since been removed.

Viagra ad

Another one of the ads is about Viagra and plants. It says if you dissolve a pill in water and add it to a vase or pot, the plants will "stay erect for up to a week longer."

Her tag line: "Want a realtor who always works hard? Call me!"

"That's just a funny little ad," she said. "People read it and laugh their heads off at it, mostly. And it's true."

"Do you want flowers that are limp?" she asked. "Viagra works."

Twitter comments from the Viagra ad, posted May 28, tell Hanlon to get a new marketing consultant.

"Is this a joke?" One user wrote. "Has your account been hacked or are you trying to showcase a complete lack of tact?"

Hanlon said she's gotten great feedback about her Keeping it Real Estate campaign over the years and she intends to keep publishing more.

"There probably won't be soldiers in it anymore," she said. "But definitely Keeping it Real Estate, yeah, people love them."