From 'Pueblo, Colorado 81009' to USA.gov

Within the last few weeks, the General Services Administration has unveiled a new television public service announcement for one of its most popular public services: the government information web portal, USA.gov.

"It's called 'For the People'," explains Teresa Nasif, Director of the Federal Citizen Information Center, part of the Office of Citizen Services and Communications at GSA.

"It shows government workers at the federal, state, and local level. They're policemen, firefighters, judges, Secret Service agents, Food and Drug Administration scientists, singing about USA.gov."

Even though the PSA portrays government employees, Nasif says they're all played by professional musical actors. The announcement was filmed at a studio in New York's Times Square for around $400,000 dollars.

The spots are the latest in a nearly 30-year old series of such public service announcements by the GSA on behalf of the federal government's efforts to provide information of all kinds to citizens.

Early spots put "Pueblo, Colorado 81009" on the map as a mail address to which people could send for the free Consumer Information Catalog, which Nasif says is still distributed from their office in Pueblo.

With improvements in technology, the popular commercials, often spoofs of classic movies or popular TV shows, went on to promote the Citizen Information Center's toll-free hotline (1-800-FED-INFO), and then a series of websites which now fall under the banner of "USA.gov".

A 2007 version parodied a scene from the popular movie "The Wizard of Oz".

Nasif says, "Citizens can learn how to get a passport, apply for student loans, get veterans benefits, learn about housing programs."

In addition, a Spanish-language version of USA.gov, "GobiernoUSA.gov" tries to address the needs of the country's burgeoning Spanish-speaking population.

The new USA.gov public service announcements are distributed via DVD to local television stations, along with broadcast and cable networks. They are part of a bigger multimedia promotion program for USA.gov which also involves radio public service announcements, and print ads for newspapers, magazines and the web.

Nasif told FederalNewsRadio that, including focus groups and marketing research, the total production budget of the "For the People" television PSAs comes to nearly $1 million.

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On the Web:

GSA - USA.gov

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