Selling the National Agenda

Al Ghad today has a story on the marketing of the National Agenda. It seems that the Executive Privatization Commission is putting out a tender to find an advertising agency to sell the NA. Now I checked out the web site of the EPC, and I can't find the advertisement. What is surprising is that government tenders in Jordan should be announced and analyzed by the General Tenders Department (hence it's name). From a procedural point of view, the GTD should offer tenders, not the EPC.

Of course, the EPC is full of smart young executives who use Power Point, getting good pay on a contract basis. These guys don't flinch at spending lots of money needlessly. On the other hand, the GTD is laden with jaded middle aged underpaid bureaucrats in cheap suits. These guys study tenders all day long and actually know the value of a Dinar. Only somebody looking to save money would offer a tender through the GTD. Moreover, it seems that our reform process has led to enough duplication in our bureaucracy that we can choose which department we want to get the desired results. Maybe more reform will lead to greater choice, akin to actually using market forces to achieve competition between the various government departments. I digress.

So, all this got me to thinking. The NAC wants to sell the NA, and wants to spend money. Since I have been accused of taking 50 dinars to trumpet the governments position, maybe I can make money by using my blog to market the NA by way of the internet. Jameed thinks that the minimum I should accept is 85 dinars, since that is the minimum wage in Jordan. Asad Abu Khalil calls his blog the Angry Arab News Agency. If I get the contract I will change the blog to the "Bemused Ajlouni's News and Advertising Log" (BANAL).

So, now that I have announced my price, which is negotiable, I will tell you about the campaign. It is difficult to summarize 2500 pages into a five word sound bite, and I believe that the campaign should be multi pronged, to suit the various segments of the population. Here are some examples:
1- For the environmentally conscious: We destroyed a small forest to do this, please don't make us do it again ©
2- For the paranoid (taking a page from GWB): They hate the NA because they hate reform ©
3- For the paranoid (again): We didn't kill Hariri, but why take a chance? ©
4- For the business minded: Even Khalaf can make money off of this ©
5- For the religious folks: Guys with beards were involved ©
6- For centrists: Its better than the guys with beards' program ©
7- For leftists: See, the public sector is actually expanding ©
They might be clunky, but they are still better than the Jordan First slogans. Please note that these slogans are copyrighted. Any attempt to use them without giving me my cut will result in legal action, or guys in a pickup with ganwas showing up.