CALGARY, Canada – Feb. 7, 2013 – A real estate agent’s edgy new billboard campaign is drawing attention – but perhaps not the kind that it should, suggest industry experts.

“Let me take you home,” Calgary agent Diane Arvatescu beckons from an alluring close-up photo on a highway billboard. “It’s gorgeous inside.”

Property market insiders and observers worry that the suggestive tone of the ad is sending the wrong message, particularly at a time when the safety of female agents at open houses is a top concern.

“I was very surprised to see something so sexually inviting and provocative,” says University of Calgary social work professor Mary Valentich. “It’s a misguided effort to communicate selling houses – she’s selling herself and I don’t think women need to do that.”

Despite the criticism, some say the ad helps Arvatescu stand out from the competition.

“If there’s a couple driving by, the husband is going to like her and the wife says no,” says mortgage specialist Andrey Butenko. “But if they’re looking for a professional and it proves she is a professional, I am sure they will go that way.”

The Calgary Herald posted a news video about the billboard online.

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