The line between Madison Avenue, the home of the advertising industry, and Pennsylvania Avenue, the center point of the Executive Branch of government, seems increasingly blurred. When these two avenues, however, are intersected by Baker Street, the residence of Sherlock Holmes, the blur becomes an unsolved puzzle of intrigue.

This small stroll down the Grid begins in the most pedestrian way. As a matter of routine, when government functions are changed and federal agencies given new monikers by act of Congress, the agencies and the affected public are often left with the detritus of stockpiled old forms bearing the former agency’s official name. The logical bureaucratic solution is to publish the forms anew with the name of the successor agency at the masthead, while allowing the public a reasonable period to continue using the old form so that paper is not wasted and forests are not clear-cut any sooner than necessary.

That was then, this is now. Enter Madison Avenue. Today, government forms are not merely published with the name of the new agency; they are instead “rebranded.” Witness the June 21, 2005 proclamation by press release of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which announces the rebranding of the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) used by every U.S. employer to legitimize the employment eligibility of each newly hired worker. As these two units of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced:
Continue Reading Untruth in Advertising: The Mysterious “Rebranding” of Immigration Form I-9