they described as Garanti Bank 's own economic stimulus package . `` We probably would n't be doing this commercial if it was the previous president , '' said Can Celikbilek , a copy writer at the advertising company , Alametifarika . `` But in the case of Obama , he does represent hope , not only for the States but for the whole world . '' For Obama look-alike actor Lamar , there was some irony about getting flown to Turkey to star in a commercial for a bank . He is a recent casualty of the global economic crisis . `` I was laid off in January of this year from JP Morgan Chase Bank in the U.S. , '' Lamar said , in a telephone interview from Pennsylvania . `` After 18 years in the company , I was just laid off . One of the cutbacks . I 'm currently unemployed right now . '' Or , was unemployed . Lamar 's striking resemblance to the American president has suddenly offered the former software analyst a possible new career for supporting his wife and child . `` I 'm available full-time now , '' Lamar said
ISTANBUL , Turkey -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Regular programming has just been interrupted by a news conference . A slender black man in a suit steps up to a podium , flanked by American flags and a White House logo . Michael Lamar was laid off in January but has a new job as a Barack Obama look-alike . `` I wish I could announce such an economic package , '' he says , `` but there is a bank in Turkey that did it . It is Garanti . I wish we had Garanti in America . '' Do n't be fooled . This is a commercial on Turkish TV . The actor is a 44-year-old Barack Obama look-alike from Whitehall , Pennsylvania , named Michael Lamar . And he is shilling for a Turkish bank . In the month before the real Barack Obama is to visit Turkey , this ad campaign went out all across the country on television and on billboards , using the iconic , Warholian image of the American president to sell low-interest loans . The `` Mad Men '' behind the concept say their Obama look-alike was the perfect guy to sell what