1815 Doctor Red Tag

I'm not sure about communicating these days. Maybe we've all gotten sloppy in the age of internet blogo-news, as editors of real newspapers across the country, those last bastions of words and phrases that make sense, have gotten fired.
Maybe we just aren't thinking.
In any event, it leads to bad marketing. Take the DR Horton Company, which for many years I've read as Doctor Horton. I've always thought, Dr. Horton is who? And is he related to the Doctor in the DR Brushcutter company?
I guess when he moved from brush-cutting to house building and got his contractor's license he skipped learning marketing. Because old Doctor Horton is having a sale. And it's a prescription for disaster.
Taking a page from regular retailers, he's having a "Red Tag Sale" on homes across Washington State. A great idea except for one thing. He's not selling clothes or bed linens. When you have a Red Tag Sale on them a red tag means a discount. But a red tag on a house has an entirely different historical meaning.
A house that's been red-tagged has been deemed deficient or uninhabitable by a building inspector.
That's right, everyone who has any knowledge of the building, insurance, hurricane or destruction remediation industries thinks only one thing when they think red tag and house in the same mental breath. There's something wrong with that the house.
With clothing or linens, it's probably okay if they were red-tagged for being less than perfect. A slub, a flaw, or a mismatched pattern on a piece of clothing is probably worth a big discount.
But a house? Let's just say I hope they didn't red tag it because of the plumbing.
Or the wiring.
Next we'll be hearing old Doctor Horton is having a fire sale...
America, ya gotta love it.