Toughest. Sales Pitch. Ever.

tried selling ice to eskimos? maybe you can try selling democracy to a rabidly anti western post tyranny.

strong>Iraqi democracy: the sales pitch

How a Western PR firm, with Arab partners, tackles the world's toughest ad campaign
By Clayton Collins | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

On the television screen, an elderly Iraqi man sits at a desk, carefully folding pieces of paper that suggest ballots. "I choose to live in peace," says a voice-over, in Arabic. "I choose justice and stability." With a fountain pen, he checks a box that takes the shape of Iraq. "I, an Iraqi, choose one Iraq."
The 30-second spot, which began airing in Iraq May 8, ends with the blue oval insignia of the Transitional Administrative Law and the same mellifluous audio kicker - "an Iraq of hope and peace" - that has capped similar ads in recent weeks.

The TAL is the work of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which will run Iraq until the planned June 30 handover. The ad, versions of which appear on radio and in print, was produced by a Western public-relations firm hired this spring by the CPA to reach Iraqis clustered around a rising number of satellite TVs.

Its job: to sell democracy.
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i'm hopeful, but not overly so.