Yes, it was somewhat amusing to see in local television commercials the familiar faces of the other missionaries and their children, mainly the Buenos and Davenports, who had been invited to perform in short television vignettes advertising the virtues of various products available for sale in local stores. I myself was never invited to perform in any product advertisement for television or print. I would rather not draw much attention to this point, not wishing to advertise the fact that I am really not the glamor type that would ever be called upon for such on-camera promotional activities. Anyway, only the boys were called on by those TV execs, whoever they were. Perhaps they thought that the appearance of white people in advertising would enhance the product's appeal or give the impression of importation from the United States, never mind wherever the products actually came from. Anyway, the boys did not share with us their television connections and expertise nor do I recall myself asking a lot of questions about that. No, it was always clear to me that I obviously have no future in the world of television advertising and that any questions I might ask about that would not return any significant information. Anyway, I should not have to be constantly explaining that I never was photogenic when everybody already knows this, obviously. It really was not necessary to hammer on this point as I already got that picture. Anyway, what would a TV advertising career matter in such a small country where possibly not even a million television sets are yet operational? I cannot really say that I would not have gone along with that if I had been asked. But it was only a minor sideshow anyway. And anyway, I was not asked. Obviously.
I got the impression later that their TV advertising activities had created somewhat of a fuss there in the country but as I was already gone by that time I really wouldn't know very much about that.
Yes, I do suppose that a missionary appearance in product placements on TV creates at least the appearance of a conflict of interests. That was really not why we were there. It doesn't seem to me that we should be doing that and risk comprising our message, but then again I suppose the opportunity is a temptation of a flattering nature that is hard for some people to resist.
