John Symond is out on the front foot for Aussie Home Loans, and arguably taking a role for the company that, six to nine months ago, he and they were keen to allow to fade into the background.There were two dimensions to this, as planned late last year and implemented early this year. First John Symond disappeared from Aussie's advertising. A new television campaign that debuted in February, devised by a new agency (Saatchi & Saatchi) promoted the company's brand under the tag line "That's confidence".The thinking seems to have been that the Aussie brand was favoured by first home buyers who didn't borrow that much and didn't return with follow up business. Aussie, which these days is more of a mortgage broker than mortgage manager (with funding from Macquarie Bank), wanted to attract customers borrowing more and with more complex financial needs.Second James Symond, nephew of John and an executive who's risen through the ranks of his uncle's company, was made chief executive. James Symond was wheeled out to undertake plenty of media around the time of the transition in the first quarter of this year.These tactics may not be working.Symond reappeared in television advertisements only a couple of months after the debut of the ads that excluded him, though these later advertisements (for Foxtel) could be argued to be of an advertorial nature.More recently - and in the context of shaky credit markets and a lot of pre-election noise about housing affordability - Symond's been readily available to plenty of media seeking industry talent.And yesterday Symond, and Aussie, popped up, with a plan to alleviate the affordability problem facing home buyers (if there is a problem; The Australian newspaper, which has published detailed analysis on the point, insists there is not, and Treasury probably holds the same view).Still, John Symond, arguably in need of free media for Aussie, yesterday hosted a media conference to promote a tax deduction for first home buyers on their mortgage interest payments in the early years of their loan.Symond said a deduction on payments of up to $15,000 a year would produce a net benefit of $4,725 a year. The tax deduction would run over five years. It would be limited to first home buyers purchasing a newly built home or apartment. It would be capped at properties worth $500,000 and the benefit would stop after the loan exceeded $200,000.After five years the recipient would have to pay back half the benefit - 10 per cent a year over five years. Symond said first home buyers purchase 20,000 new homes and apartments a year. According to BIS Shrapnel estimates that number would increase to 35,000 new dwellings if the tax deduction plan was implemented. Symond said BIS had estimated the cost of the scheme to be $505 million a year.