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Lights! Camera! The new $20
With Hollywood's help, Treasury will spend $53 million
over 5 years to market new pink greenbacks.
By Gordon T. Anderson, CNN/Money Contributing Writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The new pink $20 bill is about to enter into circulation, like it or not. But the government wants you to like it.

The Department of the Treasury will spend $53 million over the next five years on a public relations campaign to market new money (in addition to the new $20, the budget includes expenditures to promote the planned releases of a new $50 in 2004 and a new $100 in 2005). To do the job, it has signed up a few of Hollywood's leading image makers.


"The goal is public education, to build awareness and trust," said Dawn Haley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP).

On Oct. 9, the new bills will begin to circulate, as banks around the country release them to customers. Since they will be the nation's official currency, you'll have no choice but to use the notes. Even so, the BEP wants to make sure nobody is confused into questioning the authenticity of the bills, despite their radically altered look.

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