Bush's $400 Million Face Lift

Critics say corporate-style PR goes too far
By MOLLIE ZIEGLER, August 28, 2006
[...] Agencies across government are under increasing pressure to sway public opinions — either to win funding from Congress, to satisfy customers, to recruit new employees, to educate the public about new programs, to minimize fallout from controversial policies, or, as with GPO, even to survive.
As a result, many agencies are taking a page from corporate America and applying sophisticated public relations tools and tactics: Web blogs, coordinated media marketing campaigns, stylized TV ads, Hollywood-style animation, self-produced audience talk shows, flashy new brands and logos, and video news releases designed to appear as legitimate newscasts.
And PR and marketing companies are cashing in on this booming new market. A catalog of contracts offering federal agencies advertising and marketing services, run by the General Services Administration, saw sales shoot up from $39 million in 2001 to more than $400 million so far this year.
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2060330