Why the PR blitz for the new $20 bill?

[T Roosevelt]

I keep seeing commercials for it, and it's being featured during football games (I'm watching ESPN and they keep showing it). WTF?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. If they really want to get folks interested,

they should offer an introductory sale-say two twenties for $15, or something like that.

[Dookus]

2. simple...

you have to tell people when the money's changing. Imagine the chaos if all of a sudden it changed and nobody knew? Nobody would believe it wasn't counterfeit.

A few years ago, when they redesigned the $100 bill, I was travelling overseas (Singapore I think) and the US Government was running a LOT of foreign ads informing people that the new bills were coming, and that the old bills were still good.

This was to avoid what was happening in some countries where people believed the old bills would "expire". I believe Saddam Hussein even tried to cash in on this by urging people to exchange their American money for Iraqi money (at a pretty bad rate).

[Peachhead22]

3. My guess...

I'm guessing so people won't see the new bill and think it's fake. Well, that and pork. The PR campaign _is_ excessive IMO. Just run a PSA saying here's the new bill. A voiceover and a single static graphic. No half a dozen actors, sets, neato computer graphics, etc.

The gov't doesn't need to "sell" them. Just tell us about them. Unlike silver dollars, not using the new $20s isn't really an option.