The Potemkin Village

There has been criticism of the federal government's current advertising program, a frequently aired television commercial saying, in effect, that the national economy is in the pink, not the red.  It is a very well produced commercial, shot in various parts of Canada, with excellent actors expertly playing actual Canadians.  And it should be good, if the $40 million price tag placed on the campaign is correct.  

Critics have said this money might have been put to better use, but if I were still in the public relations game, and advising the government, I would tell them the campaign could be justified as psychological stimulus, as essential as economic stimulus to get the bucks rolling again. 

I would also recommend a follow-up commercial in which Prime Minister Harper, backed by a chorus line of cabinet ministers, sings "We're in the Money." 

Meanwhile, thoughts turn to what became known as Potemkin Villages--fake villages, which were really mock-up building fronts, like Hollywood sets, constructed by Grigori Potemkin to please Catherine the Great, and defined, in the Merriam Webster Dictionary, as "an impressive facade or show designed to hide an undesirable fact or condition."