The New York Times runs a fascinating piece on the introduction of a new colored $20 bill. “The Bureau of Engraving and Printing will spend $33 million on advertising, marketing and education programs to promote the new bill, and it has hired a public relations firm and, in a first, a product placement firm and one of Hollywood’s top talent agencies to put the $20 bill on the publicity circuit. By the time the new bill joins the currency flow next month, it will have appeared virtually everywhere but on the ballot for California’s recall election.”
The story never says precisely what the government fears could go wrong, beyond the usual vending machine issues, but surely the disastrous experience of the Sacagawea $1 coin looms large. Whatever their worries, the Treasury is banking on an incredible blizzard of propaganda as the answer.
During the introduction week, the bill is likely to be featured on many news and entertainment programs just because it’s newsworthy. But it will also have a starring role on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” with hundreds of new $20 bills doled out to audience members, and Meredith Vieira, the host, explaining the bills and waving them in front of the camera. The bill will get a category of questions on “Jeopardy” and will pop up on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” In one of several joint marketing efforts between the Treasury and consumer goods companies, the bill’s design will grace bags of Pepperidge Farm’s Goldfish crackers, and the crackers themselves will be colored to match the new bills. Images of the new note will pop up on thousands of A.T.M.’s, and the bill will even be superimposed electronically on the field during college football games on ESPN and Monday Night Football on ABC.
