"first streaming ad in Agency's history launched to recruit Americans to join CIA"
In a first for the American espionage agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launched paid advertising on streaming and social media platforms this June to recruit intelligence officers. This first of a kind advertising effort by the agency is an effort to be more competitive with higher-paying corporate jobs and add more Americans from minority backgrounds.
In 2019, the CIA launched an Instagram account, highlighting the diversity of its workforce. One post profiled a CIA staffer who grew up homeless; another who sports extensive body art. Black and lesbian CIA employees describe a career in an agency once synonymous with men who found a grey flannel suit an aggressive style choice.
The current CIA Director Gina Haspel, America's first female spy chief, said in a statement announcing the advertising campaign that it was "an important step forward to reach talented Americans with the diversity of experiences we require." In a nod to the time, the CIA accelerated the commercial effort as more people are at home watching television and surfing the net due to COVID social distance practices.
The focus of the CIA's recruitment push is a recognition that the agency's success depends crucially on its intelligence officers' quality. Their ultimate mission is human intelligence (HUMINT) and the personal skill of recruiting assets, accessing state secrets, and collecting analysis on which the US Government relies to make decisions.
The CIA does not publish its workforce demographics. Still, a 2015 agency report revealed that African Americans counted for little more than 4 percent of its senior ranks. Both absolute numbers and proportions of those in senior levels had declined during the preceding decade.
According to the most recent annual demographic report compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, diversity has been increasing across the American intelligence community - although its demography isn't representative of the US population in general.
Women comprise 38.8% of staff across the 17 agencies in the US intelligence community and 41.2% of new hires.
Also, with Amazon expanding in NoVa and building a gleaming HQ across from the Pentagon, the CIA faces an even greater struggle to attract and keep workers whose wallets can be filled with better salaries in the private sector.
The "Discover the CIA: Your Nation is Counting on You" paid media campaign includes 90-, 60-, and 15-second versions. The effort running nationally on multiple platforms is just one tool to reach their target audience. Having a workforce that looks like America is an additional tool the CIA needs to add to their spycraft tool-chest.
-Marc | Founder @ Caracal
