MAKE BELIEVE

Helicopter Ride-Share Company Blade Admits Longtime Spokesperson Was Fake

Blade CEO Rob Wiesenthal even pretended to be the company’s fictitious spokesperson, Simon McLaren, in interviews with reporters.

After three years at the NYC-based helicopter service Blade, Simon McLaren stepped down from his role as director of communications just before the company went public. The only problem? McLaren isn’t a real person. Blade CEO Rob Wiesenthal admitted to the years-long ruse in an interview with Insider saying that McLaren was a persona he invented with his colleagues. Over the years, news outlets have quoted McLaren as if he’s a real person. “There was no intention of being duplicitous. A lot of people wanted a name for a spokesman, and it was just not appropriate for a CEO to speak,” said Wiesenthal, who added that despite the fake name, “McLaren” always spoke truthfully in statements to the press. The CEO admitted to posing as McLaren in interviews with the press—and the company even crafted social media accounts and a website for the fake person. “In the summer of 2020, as a private company we stopped using the press inquiry pseudonym and we now have an outside firm representing us, and we apologize to anyone who feels deceived when we used a pseudonym,” he added.