CIA officials premiered new television recruitment ads aimed at Middle Easterners on Wednesday in Dearborn at the Lebanese American Heritage Club.

Arab Americans watch one of two CIA ads geared toward recruiting Americans of Middle Eastern descent at a special screening in Dearborn on Wednesday. One ad is to premier in the Detroit area next week and is expected to show increasingly in other states along with the second ad in coming months. PHOTO: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN

They showed two ads, one featuring Arab American actors including one local, and one using Iranian American actors.
CIA Program Manager for Middle East Outreach, Zahra Roberts, said producing the ads took about a year, and were based on input from focus groups.

The ad geared toward Arab Americans shows a dinner party in a family setting utilizing authentic Arab foods, cultural items and music. A male voice says: “Your nation, your world,” as the camera pans out dramatically and shows the family through a window of a high-rise building. The shot zooms to an image of the U.S. from space. “They’re worth protecting,” the voice says, followed by a CIA logo and the lines “Careers in the CIA.”

Roberts said the ad was shot at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, where the iconic TV show “I Love Lucy” was shot.

The ad using Iranian American actors focused more on specific CIA careers, featuring various actors dressed as scientists and other professionals saying “I protect America… I support global intelligence… I inform policy makers.”

Some at the screening complained that the Arab-focused ad did not portray Arab Americans as professionals in the same way the Iranian ad did.

Roberts said the ad concepts were based on feedback from the focus groups, in which Arab American participants focused on family, saying the CIA needed to show it cared about family, while Iranian feedback was very focused on specific positions available at the agency.

The Arab American-themed ad is expected to begin airing on the local Middle Eastern Broadcasting Network on Monday, Nov. 23.

The CIA has stepped up outreach to Middle Eastern communities in recent months and years as need for cultural and Arabic and Farsi linguistic knowledge has increased within the agency, while public perception of the agency has suffered amid reports of torture and extraordinary rendition.

CIA Director Leon Panetta visited Dearborn to meet with Arab Americans in September, saying harsh interrogation tactics allegedly employed during the Bush administration would not continue under President Barack Obama.