Putting a Megawatt Smile on a Simmering Problem

Duraid Adnan/The New York Times

From billboards in Baghdad, an unauthorized image of Ms. Couric beams out at passers-by in an advertisement for a daily news bulletin about electricity.

By TIM ARANGO

Published: July 11, 2012

BAGHDAD — With average temperatures hovering around 110 degrees this week, Iraqi officials have decided to try to head off the kind of huge public protests that have arisen in years past over their failure to provide adequate electric service.

But officials are not just trying to upgrade power lines and generators. They are also looking to Katie Couric to help keep people cool.

At more than two dozen locations around this city, officials have posted giant billboards of Ms. Couric, billed as “America’s Sweetheart” during her time as a host of the “Today” show on NBC. From high above the steamy streets, or from the side of blast walls, Ms. Couric beams out at passers-by in an advertisement for a daily news bulletin about electricity that is produced by the government and is shown on 11 satellite television channels.

“It doesn’t give me hope about electricity, but I like to see her beautiful face,” Habib Harbi, who sells watermelon in the summer and sweets in the winter, said as he looked across the street at the billboard from his fruit stand.

People point to many markers here as evidence that life has gotten better since the very dark days after the occupation began. Safety is still a concern, with bombings and shootings taking lives randomly. But it has improved. Yet one of the harshest reminders that Iraq is still a wounded nation is the inability to provide adequate electricity. Soon it will be Ramadan, when the faithful cannot eat or drink during the long daylight hours, a challenge made all the more difficult by the hot, still air. No power — no fan, no air-conditioning.

The Electricity Ministry is making only halting progress in solving the country’s power woes, so it is trying to burnish its image with a public relations campaign that demonstrates a degree of Madison Avenue sophistication, not to mention a disregard of copyright law.

“We were looking for a bright and optimistic face that inspires the people to imagine a better future for electricity,” said Musaab al-Mudarrs, the spokesman for the Electricity Ministry, who said designers had plucked Ms. Couric’s image from the Internet.

Mr. Mudarrs oversees a bustling media office at the Electricity Ministry that produces the daily five-minute news bulletin, a longer weekly program, the advertising campaign that features Ms. Couric and, soon, a magazine called People and Power. He said the goal behind the effort was to counter the populace’s perception of the ministry as “only bribes and corruption.”

Mr. Mudarrs said the face of an American woman was sought for the campaign because showcasing an Iraqi woman would violate cultural taboos. And Ms. Couric, he said, was dressed appropriately in the picture — she was wearing a brown Max Mara blazer — and was the right age. “We didn’t want someone to be very old or very young, and she was in the middle,” he said. Mr. Mudarrs did say he was a bit worried that “when she finds out, maybe she will file a lawsuit against us.”

But in a telephone interview, Ms. Couric took the news in stride. “I’m calling my lawyer,” she said, adding quickly, “I’m kidding.”

Ms. Couric, who has reported from Iraq, said the billboards were “bizarre and slightly amusing” but reminded her of her experiences here. “It is illustrative of a serious problem, because when I was in Iraq, at the height of the war, it was a huge hardship for families, especially in the summers,” she said. “It did remind me of how serious the situation still is there.”

For years, the Electricity Ministry has borne the anger of citizens over electricity shortages that defied nine years of American efforts and many dollars to fix. Two hot summers ago, street protests over power shortages forced the minister of electricity to resign. Last year, as the Arab Spring blossomed, thousands of Iraqis rallied for better services and were greeted by bullets. Now giant billboards featuring Ms. Couric stand out in a city dotted with placards of bearded and turbaned religious men.

One of the billboards is affixed to the blast walls that protect an Electricity Ministry office near a busy central market. Across the street merchants hawk everything from fish to bootleg DVDs to plastic children’s pools.

  It is unclear what effect the public relations campaign is having on people’s sentiments. The daily program about electricity has not stirred a national conversation. But while complaints about power are still frequent, there are few rumblings about street protests.

The ministry says that electricity is improving, and some residents agree, especially those who live near ministry offices. Murtada Khassim, who sells cologne and bars of soap from a wooden cart near another billboard of Ms. Couric’s smiling face, and who lives in an apartment nearby, said he had had 10 straight hours of power the previous night, a substantial improvement from last summer, when most residents had just a few hours each day.

“Whoever comes here says, ‘What a beautiful face,’ ” Mr. Khassim said. “She’s smiling. She gives us hope.”

But others, like Mr. Harbi, the watermelon seller, who lives in another neighborhood, said his electricity had not noticeably improved. “Things are bad,” he said. “Three to four hours a day. It’s very bad.”

Near the watermelon stand, Abu Asil displayed stacks of children’s clothing atop a cardboard box. “They say this is news about electricity,” he said. “But where is the electricity?” He lives in Adhamiya, a Sunni enclave in the capital, and he said he received four hours of electricity each day.

As he spoke, one of the double-decker buses that recently began operating here passed by.

“Anything that gives us hope in Baghdad is good,” he said. “Just like these red buses with air-conditioning. For 500 dinars, I can reach home without being in the heat.” That is less than 5o cents.

The woman who actually presents the electricity show on television is Vivienne Ghanim, a former broadcast journalist. The ministry also films the segments using a male host, for distribution to channels that forbid women to appear on the air without their head covered. Ms. Ghanim said the ministry initially considered using her image on the billboards.

“Of course, my family was against it,” she said. “My family said the security situation was bad, and that they didn’t want my photo all over the place.”

So it was Ms. Couric who unwittingly became the public face of one of Iraq’s most implacable problems. (The backup choice, for those wondering, was Laurie Dhue, a former anchor for Fox News.)

“The face was very nice, her smile,” said Marwan al-Bayatti, the Web producer at the ministry who designed the billboards. “It was perfect for us.” 

Duraid Adnan contributed reporting.