Back at home in Boston, Lillie Marshall is a mother, a teacher in the Boston Public School system, and an avid blogger.
But in Ghana, she’s kind of a local celebrity.
On January 9, while she was home with her child, a casual
acquaintance sent Marshall an email letting her know that her face is
plastered on a giant billboard in West Africa, advertising restaurant
food and services for residents of Ghana.
The “shocking” message read:
Lillie! Flying down the street in the car on my way to Bojo Beach in Ghana, we passed this sign. I screamed out loud, ‘I KNOW THAT GIRL!’ Are you aware that you are the face of the Synagogue Restaurant in Accra, Ghana?!
Marshall has come to terms with the fact that she’s prominently
displayed on the large sign, however, she doesn’t have the slightest
inclination as to how her photo wound up there.
“I have a new baby, so I’m up all night nursing, and I got the
message from my friend at 3 a.m. When I woke up, I was like, ‘was that a
bad dream?’ I verified it was true when I looked at the picture in the
morning,” she said. “There I was. But I don’t know how long it has been
up.”
Marshall, a travel writer,
spent time in the region back in 2010 when she was teaching at schools
in the area. She spent three months in West Africa after taking a
year-leave from the BPS system, where she has taught for the last
decade.
She thinks whoever owns the ad could have done a quick Google search,
possibly using the terms “Jewish,” “Food,” and “Ghana,”—things she
regularly blogged about during her time there—and plucked her picture
from the Internet.
“That could have been it. Or maybe I worked with some people when I
was there who maybe knew about my site,” she said. She can’t be sure,
though.
While she has grown slightly fond of her obscure newfound fame in
another part of the world, she hasn’t stopped investigating the
circumstances surrounding the surprise appearance. Marshall said she has
enlisted the help of friends she made while teaching in Ghana, who have
been calling the Synagogue Restaurant repeatedly to try and get some
answers.
“Normally I am really angry when people take my photos or use my
face, but there is something sort of charming about this,” she said.
“They are not making big bucks off it I’m sure, and I like a little bit
of fame, so whatever ways it comes I’ll take it. The country is
wonderful, the food is great, and the people there are great. My
experience was incredibly welcoming, so maybe that’s another reason I
feel OK about this.”
Marshall said it also helped her personal blog, “Around the World ‘L,’” where she wrote about the experience, which led to more hits than ever before.
On her site she concluded:
Bottom line: This is one of the most bizarre instances to happen as a result of my blog, ever, and it raises some intense questions… but it’s also kind of funny.
If the circumstances were different, she said she would have asked
the advertisers to remove the image, or cough up some cash for
compensation. But you can’t fight every battle, she said.
Coincidentally, around the time she posted her blog, a New York Times reporter came forward and detailed his own similar experience discovering
his face was used in an ad without his knowledge in the Brazilian
Amazon. The quirkiness of such a similar situation made the incident
“neat,” she said.
With the initial shock subsided, Marshall will continue to blog but
keep a watchful eye on any developments with her likeness. “I may end up
writing a follow up. It seems like it’s possible that I’ll find out
what happened. I am writing through Facebook to former coworkers to find
out details, but it’s a muddy line of communication. But I think [we
will figure it out], eventually,” she said.
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