ISTANBUL , Turkey ( CNN ) -- 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 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 . `` I 'm going to see where this leads me . '' Lamar is now being represented by a casting agency in Los Angeles that specializes in celebrity look-alikes . Since he discovered his new `` talent , '' he has traveled to the Netherlands to appear in a commercial for a liquor chain and to Paris , where an activist organization brought him in to meet lawmakers at the National Assembly , as part of a campaign to raise awareness about racism and racial profiling in France . `` This was very exciting for me , a true privilege ! '' Lamar said . During his brief visit to Turkey , locals did double-takes when they saw Lamar walk past . `` Even in the studio , the crew [ members ] were like , 'Oh ! Is that Obama ? '' said Celikbilek of Alametifarika advertising . Using the image of an American president to promote anything in Turkey is a remarkable reversal . U.S. approval ratings in Turkey plunged to 9 percent , according to a 2007 Pew Research poll , making America less popular in Turkey then almost anywhere else in the world , even though the two countries are NATO allies . There was widespread anger among Turks at the war in neighboring Iraq . But the election of Barack Obama appears to have dramatically improved perceptions of America . `` Bush was a dictator who attacked other countries , '' said Abdurrahman Ozdemir , who sells cigarettes from a small stall on the street . `` But we love Obama ... because he does not want to go to war with other countries . '' `` We started to love and like America because of Obama , '' said a 33-year-old woman named Begum Arinc . `` I do n't want to see people dying . I do n't want to see any war . That 's why I want to believe in Obama . ''
Michael Lamar strikes an Obama-like figure in ads for a bank in Turkey . Lamar worked for JP Morgan Chase for 18 years before being laid off . President Obama will be in Turkey soon on presidential visit . U.S. approval ratings in turkey have plunged in recent years .