One new piece of foreign intelligence and “everything can change in an instant”, a CIA instructor tells new recruits in a slick 60-second commercial broadcast this week on video streaming services across the US. Moments later, a young black female field officer palms a memory stick from an older male asset as they cross paths on a staircase outside an unnamed foreign ministry overseas. In a first for the American spy agency, the CIA is advertising on both streaming services and social media to recruit top intelligence officers as it battles competition from higher-paying corporates and tries to hire more people from minority backgrounds. CIA director Gina Haspel, America’s first female spy chief, said in a statement this week that it was “an important step forward to reach talented Americans with the diversity of experiences we require”. The agency brought forward the commercial to coincide with the fact that so many people are at home on lockdown watching television. The agency faces an uphill struggle to attract and keep workers whose heads can be turned by better salaries in the private sector.