How Your Government Advertises

'We’ve got the stuff you’ve been searching for all your life,' USA.gov ad says.

“We’ve got the stuff you’ve been searching for all your life.”

That irresistible come-on is at the center of a print advertisement for USA.gov appearing in the February issue of Smithsonian magazine. The decade-old government portal formerly known as Firstgov offers “more than 50 million government resources you can use in everyday life.”

The year-old ad campaign uses a Web-diagram-style infographic that groups items by such broad topics as Public Service and Volunteerism; Public Safety and the Law; and Travel, Transportation and Nutrition. Concrete items within each include such grabbers as “government unclaimed money,” “scams,” “blogs” and “seized and surplus cars.”

USA.gov’s offerings, maintained by the General Services Administration’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, are also available—of course—on Twitter, Facebook and mobile app.