I don't think there was a PR drive from the US/Israeli government, more like despite the US/Israeli government.

Remembering that the only reason we even know about stuxnet is because it was so aggressive that practically every PC on the planet caught it at one point. Also "stuxnet" is the name we gave it, it seems similar to another US Govt project that we know very little about codenamed "Olympic Games".

If it had not been so aggressive it would have gone completely unnoticed. Likely this is the case for a lot of state-sponsored malware. (especially coming out of FIVE-EYES).

It was never admitted to though;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

It was publicised so much because it was the most advanced cyber weapon of its kind to ever been released.

It was said that it would not have been discovered had it not been modified half way through its life to spread faster. This led to it spreading beyond the Natanz facility that it targeted.

Chilling effect? "We have the ability to infiltrate any system and catastrophically destroy your hardware."