If you've read my previous post, then you already know that I'm concerned about people posing as experts and endorsing products. Add another category of deliberate deception: people posing as authority figures and endorsing products. Cisco Systems is running a television ad in which the actress Ellen Page supposedly returns to her hometown of Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. The "mayor" greets her and enthusiastically shows her the small town's new police department, which consists of a room with one officer and a Cisco-supplied system of electronic surveillance.
The problem is, he's not really the mayor. The real mayor of Lunenberg is the Rev. Lawrence Mawhinney, a Presbyterian minister who has worn the mayoral hat since 1979. So, does the real mayor actually endorse Cisco's products? Does he know that a younger, bald man is impersonating him on American television? Does Lunenberg even have a high-tech surveillance system made by Cisco?
Your guess is as good as mine. However, I did find out that Lunenberg does not have its own police department. The city relies on the Mounties instead.
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Daniel Altman is a Harvard-trained economist who has been an economics columnist for The Economist, The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune. He is the author of three books and teaches a course on the future of the global economy at New York University's Stern School of Business.
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