As an IT journalist ...

So begins the commerical for Acer's for Gemstone consumer notebooks running on Australian FM radio at the moment. The speaker, who goes on to promote the sounds features of the model, doesn't give his name (perhaps he's a dentist with a journalism degree from the Ponds Institute) but it's not a voice I recognise. It's not the first time a company has used an actor to play a professional in an advertisement of course and I suspect audiences these days tune out messages like this (perhaps Acer and Telstra share an advertising agency :-) but it made me wonder how actual journalists feel about it.
Update: Here's an Australian IT journalist who thinks Acer's tactic here is a bit dis-honest, Dan Warne, on-line editor of Australian Personal Computer, on his personal blog and APC . Kudos to Dan (and to fellow journalist David Flynn for tracking down the source).