OK, get this. The National Security Agency, the nice people with the glasses pressed up against the outside of your bedroom walls, thinks that the place to best find new recruits is in the viewer base of "Lost" and "CSI." The NSA has produced advertisements targeting college aged kids and professionals in the tech industry and aired them during episodes of those shows. The campaign launched this past September 11th (SHOCKER!) and ran for five weeks. The ads showed various bad things (jeeps blowing up and the like) and intoned how it was the responsibility of concerned citizens to join the NSA to find these bad people.

The shows were chosen because they involve complex problem solving and attract an intelligent audience who delights in trying to piece together the clues, traits that are of value in the NSA. Hits to the web address used in the ad increased significantly in the times immediately after the ads aired but requests for the number of actual recruits hired were met only with stern glares and warnings that such questions endangered national security.