The CDC Takes Passive-Aggression to New Levels

Katherine Mangu-Ward | May 12, 2009

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are here for you, America. Got a vaguely health-related complaint against your neighbors or friends? Fearing contagion from a pandemic flu, but don't know how to bring up the subject with your coughing co-worker? Look no further. Direct from the CDC website, health ecards, with informative messages and web addresses inside:

Worried you gave someone syphilis? Say it with an ecard!:

Dirty ragamuffins in the neighborhood? Ecard!:

Annoyingly loud generator? Send an ecard!:

Obviously, there's the your-tax-dollars-at-work angle here. But maybe this really is a gap, a place where only government-funded groups can effectively step in a provide this valuable defense of the public's health. Well, let's take a look at a side-by-side comparison of the private and public versions of the same ecard message.

Private sector:

Public sector:

Your call.