Feel like a very special agent in spy agency's branded socks
GCHQ has its Christmas puzzles. The CIA posts its 'artefact of the week' on Instagram. The French DGSE spy agency holds hacking tournaments and publishes recruitment tests online.
The German foreign intelligence service, though, has resorted to a whole new species of public relations tool in an effort to improve its battered image: branded tennis socks.
The BND opened an online shop with 20 items, from bottle-opener key rings to Fairtrade tote bags.
The cheapest of them is a lanyard — which presumably doubles as a handy garrote — for €4.90, followed by a ballpoint pen for €4.95. It is not clear whether the pen explodes or fires darts. At the upper end of the range are a thermos canister for €39 and a hoodie — 'suitable for any mission' — for €43.90.
This being Germany, the latter comes with a warning that it is not official 'service clothing' and using it to pose as a spy is punishable with a prison sentence of up to two years.
A white porcelain mug available for €22.95 ('Plain. Strong. Nice. For real breaks') has already sold out.
The BND said it had opened the shop primarily to reach young potential recruits after experiencing 'massive' demand for the freebies it handed out at job fairs. The agency is struggling to fill several hundred posts at its headquarters in Berlin, despite receiving about 10,000 applications a year.
In a shadowy world that has conventionally been shy of anything resembling PR, the BND has already taken unorthodox steps to make itself look like a more attractive employer. Last year it opened a visitor centre, which includes an interactive exhibition and a merchandise vending machine, to curious passers-by.
• German efficiency? Not in the shady, inept BND spy agency
It has started a podcast, Job Secret, and has put forward some of its younger officers for interviews about what their daily work entails — albeit in a carefully anonymised form. It also ran an unusually bold recruitment advertising campaign with slogans such as 'No shaking, no stirring — just apply' and 'We are looking for terrorists (male/female/other) — find them with us'.
The online shop is not the first time the BND has sold merchandise to the public, however. In 2005, it set up a temporary stand in Berlin where visitors could buy items such as a compilation of the spies' favourite recipes and pairs of boxer shorts bearing the words 'classified' or 'service use only'.
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