MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - Brainiacs from Mars isn't a new game show or sitcom, but it might be a way for you to save big bucks on your mortgage. All you have to do is allow your house to become… hideous.
Brainiacs from Mars is a California marketing and advertising company. Its latest money maker is to turn your house into a giant billboard. If you play along, you might not have to make another mortgage payment for twelve long months.
“I would do it if they would pay my mortgage off,” said Angie Smith, a homeowner near downtown Memphis.
Brainiacs from Mars won’t pay your mortgage off, but they will make the payments for a year if you let them paint your house.
“People need help in Memphis,” said Romeo Mendoza, CEO of Brainiacs. But, when Mendoza talks about painting your house, it may not be what you’re thinking.
“Broccoli green and sunrise orange aren’t normal in just about any neighborhood,” said Mendoza.
But if you sign up that’s what you’ll get, plus billboards, which in Memphis are considered “off premise.”
“Under the current regulations, the only place you can have any off premise advertising is along the interstates,” said Josh Whitehead, Planning Director for Memphis and Shelby County.
So, that eliminates the billboards. But, that gaudy orange and green would be allowed.
“No city in Tennessee can regulate paint color on single family houses with the exception of historic districts,” Whitehead added.
“The colors are so out there,” according to Mendoza, “that it starts conversations, and that conversation ends up making its way back to us anyway.”
The whole idea is to help people struggling to make their mortgage; more than 200 families in Memphis have already applied.
“We are able to go in there, pay their mortgage, give them more savings so they can weather the storm,” Mendoza told abc24.com.
But, would you like your neighbors to go fluorescent?
“I wouldn’t mind if my neighbors painted their homes orange and green if they wanted to save them,” said Smith, “they’re more important to me than what it looks like on the outside.”
Brainiacs from Mars has about 45,000 applications nationwide for its painting/mortgage program; more than 200 from Memphis.
Nothing has been painted here yet, but Mendoza said his company plans to turn parts of Memphis broccoli green and sunshine orange early in 2013.
