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.
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.
The BBC World Service has broadcast from Bush House since 1941
It will now return back to Broadcasting House, which has recently completed a major extension.
