As part of a $300 million, three-year U.S. government effort encouraging seniors to sign up for the new Medicare prescription drug program [3], the PR firm Ketchum [4] won a $25 million contract, including $2 million in fees, to manage the advertising campaign. Ketchum "produced a controversial series of prepackaged news stories," or video news releases [5] (VNRs), for the Department of Health and Human Services [6] (HHS). VNRs that Ketchum produced for the Department of Education [7] were also recently found to [8] be "covert propaganda [9]." The Washington Post reported, "HHS officials say Ketchum got the new work because it already had a multiyear contract to provide public relations services for the department. The firm promised the new ads will not cross the legal line." HHS's Kathleen Harrington said that seniors trust Medicare [10] information more when it comes from the government, so "it's in the interest of our success ... to label everything appropriately [11]."