Advertising's War on Terrorism: The Story of the U.S. State Department's Shared Values Initiative

Shortly after the September 11th attacks, Charlotte Beers, a former advertising executive-turned-U.S.-State-Department-official, purchased $5 million of commercial airtime on Middle Eastern and Asian television stations.

The goal of the "Shared Values Initiative" was to convince the Muslim and Arab world that America wasn't waging war on Islam. The Madison Avenue-produced ads depicted the happy lives of Muslims in America, including Dr. Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of...