• CNNMoney.com, Friday, October 12, 2007 11 AM

Former Vice President Al Gore, the go-to guy on climate change, is pushing for a public advertising campaign with an estimated annual cost of $100 million to $200 million, making it one of the largest public service ad efforts ever. TV ads, newspaper spreads and Internet ads will roll out in the coming months in the campaign, funded by donations and proceeds from his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

The campaign's focus is on convincing people they can help fight global warming. "It's about communicating the urgency and solvability of the climate crises," says Brian Hardwick, a spokesman for the Alliance for Climate Change, an environmental group founded and chaired by Gore. "So [people] will demand the kind of change we need."

It is not just about energy use, either--taking on other factors including deforestation and methane from cows, which contribute to the problem. And the ads won't endorse any specific legislation, such as bills to raise fuel economy standards or cap carbon emissions--but instead will push the idea that global warming is not unstoppable, and that we have the technology to avoid it and the disasters it will bring. "We have all the answers we need," says Hardwick, who aims to "reframe the issue as an opportunity, not a sacrifice." The ads are being created by Richmond-Va.-based Martin Agency, the brains behind Geico's caveman ads and UPS' "What can brown do for you."

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