People point to many markers here as evidence that life has gotten better since the very dark days after the occupation began. Safety is still a concern, with bombings and shootings taking lives randomly. But it has improved. Yet one of the harshest reminders that Iraq is still a wounded nation is the inability to provide adequate electricity. Soon it will be Ramadan, when the faithful cannot eat or drink during the long daylight hours, a challenge made all the more difficult by the hot, still air. No power — no fan, no air-conditioning.

The Electricity Ministry is making only halting progress in solving the country’s power woes, so it is trying to burnish its image with a public relations campaign that demonstrates a degree of Madison Avenue sophistication, not to mention a disregard of copyright law.

“We were looking for a bright and optimistic face that inspires the people to imagine a better future for electricity,” said Musaab al-Mudarrs, the spokesman for the Electricity Ministry, who said designers had plucked Ms. Couric’s image from the Internet.

Mr. Mudarrs oversees a bustling media office at the Electricity Ministry that produces the daily five-minute news bulletin, a longer weekly program, the advertising campaign that features Ms. Couric and, soon, a magazine called People and Power. He said the goal behind the effort was to counter the populace’s perception of the ministry as “only bribes and corruption.”

Mr. Mudarrs said the face of an American woman was sought for the campaign because showcasing an Iraqi woman would violate cultural taboos. And Ms. Couric, he said, was dressed appropriately in the picture — she was wearing a brown Max Mara blazer — and was the right age. “We didn’t want someone to be very old or very young, and she was in the middle,” he said. Mr. Mudarrs did say he was a bit worried that “when she finds out, maybe she will file a lawsuit against us.”