It was only one person writing at a time under the pen name. And they didn't make up a biography for the pen name. And they didn't have an undisclosed conflict of interest. And when journalists[1] inquired about the identity of the columnist they didn't try to hide it.
Maybe those are minor differences, but "Ann Landers" "Dear Abby" "Dear Prudence" and similar feel different than a corporate team of people working on behalf of a loan refinance company giving you advice about loans.
In a related vein, learning that Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene (famous for _The Hardy Boys_ and _Nancy Drew_ novels) were really whole teams of ghostwriters surprised me.[2] I had always thought they were similar to the advice columnists, with one person adopting the pen name for a long run.
And it was always understood to be a pen name. Nobody was under the illusion that there was someone named "Ann Landers" dispensing advice, they even held a contest for the replacement when one of the earlier writers passed away.
While in college I lived with a Russian rocket scientist visiting the university. (Apparently Russia is kickass at rocket science, they've just struggled to build them as well as they design) He was a hoot, embodying several russian stereotypes and teaching me new ones.
One day I came into the kitchen and he was studying the newspaper. "At first, was very concerned..." he said, in a thick-but-very-clear Russian accent. (Georgian, I think, though I wouldn't know) "...giving so much power to a woman." Indeed, he was speaking with great gravitas. "But is very wise, this...'Dear Abby'"
I'm pretty sure he was serious, but I can't be 100% sure.
Another time he bought a used car from a woman and one day he had the hood up and was shaking his head. "Can tell was owned by woman. Very dirty." Note he wasn't talking about anything INTERNAL, but the actual external surfaces of the engine. Same issue...pretty sure he was serious, but not positive.
He was, however, greatly impressed by the female nurses he encountered (when having liver issues, likely due to using vodka in place of water) - his version of Russian female nurses sound more like a movie brute orderly than an RN.
How can you say that "nobody was under the illusion"? Surely millions of people were -- the newspapers didn't disclose that the name was a pseudonym, and plenty of other advice columnists aren't pseudonyms.
It wasn't always printed at the bottom of the column, but it was always disclosed. If someone wanted to talk to the columnist, they didn't correspond at length with journalists under the fake name. Or claim that Abigail Van Buren was unavailable due to travel. Contemporaneous newspaper articles discussing the writers behind the columns are easy to find.[1]
If you think that's bad, let me tell you about this dude supposedly called "Mark Twain". Beloved American humorist? Or lying liar with pants on fire? You be the judge.
