Real estate agents and developers are at the forefront of changing New York City neighborhood names into stupid acronyms. The success of Soho, Tribeca, Noho, Fidi and Dumbo has infected not only New York, but nearly every other upwardly mobile city in America. But NYC is especially afflicted. Suddenly there is Soha, SoBro, GoCaGa and, of course, ProCo.
The alphabet soup of new neighborhood nicknames has gotten so bad state Sen. Brian Benjamin of Harlem introduced a bill that would prevent New York City real estate agents from getting too creative with nontraditional neighborhood names. At this point, we are basically the parody of gentrification that South Park so perfectly lampooned with SoDoSoPa and the “city part of town.”
So first let’s revisit Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s perfect take down of promotional real estate videos.
Now watch this real clip promoting Noho.
Or this video selling Tribeca…
Or, most recently, this kicker of a video from Kushner Companies promoting “Dumbo Heights”
Dumbo Heights from Creative Soldier on Vimeo.
NYC real industry, open your copy books, take notes, and give it a rest already.
–Christopher Cameron