They've been using the whole zombie phenomenon for a while now. I seem to recall the CDC issuing other "joke" publications before about the zombie plague. The Dept. of Defense has also had little war games about zombies. It's portrayed as a tongue-in-cheek, all in good fun indulgence of pop culture, but I view the whole thing as a proxy for "people the government wants to be rid of".
Of course, they've been even less subtle with some of their recent things. Like those "No More Hesitation" targets, which were specifically designed to train their JBTs to shoot pregnant women, children, and elderly people.
