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Comment by xcambar | Hacker News Reader

In France, the french secret services (DGSE) worked hand-in-hand with the production of a TV show called The Bureau (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4063800).

The services were supposedly lacking diverse resources for both operators, admins and field agents of diverse backgrounds.

This series drew a very strong, credible and positive narrative that led to a massive number of people knocking at the doors of the DGSE to join the forces.

Propaganda? I think not. Well thought out recruitment strategy as entertainment? Most likely yes.

Is there a difference between the two? To be discussed... ;)

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“Propaganda” is an early 20th century term that eventually got turned into “public relations”. So yes, it is definitely, 100% propaganda.

Rebranding "propaganda" into "PR" was, in and of itself, quite an impressive work of propaganda.

It’s a little surreal to be watching it (sort of) while skimming HN and stumbling into this thread.

You are being manipulated in this very second. That you skim HN while watching the show was actually anticipated. This comment will auto-destruct in 60 seconds.

There is no evidence the show was designed as an advertisement for the DGSE. This is simply a happy side-effect of it being popular...

I see a big difference with using movies as propaganda to influence the planet's opinions.

At the same time, one has to be blind to not see that any cinema industry has a political agenda, I mean, just watch the average Netflix production and it is striking.

> There is no evidence the show was designed as an advertisement for the DGSE.

It is for me inconceivable that the DGSE did not think of the outcome before agreeing to be an active collaborator of the show, and act accordingly to it's own benefits.

I get why you say this, however corps often can't even think of why securing infra, and code, is important.

Why then would any other part of society be different? Competence is not a widely spread feature of humanity.

Intelligence services are not a random subset of humanity, though.

As one of us two seem to have a definitive argument, I guess we'll have to stick to our beliefs for now. I'm more curious now to know how much of it all was planned than I was before this conversation started.

As *none [...]

I dunno, I've worked with gov departments here (Canada), and sometimes there is planning, but even so, it seems seldom well thought out.

Things get done, but almost in spite of the planning.

I certainly wouldn't mind knowing too.

(edit: I only get called when planning fails, or things have gone off the rails, now that I think about it, so maybe an unfair opinion.)

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