Eco-Alarmist Ads Exploit Children, Have GOP "Support"

Some "prominent" Republicans are co-sponsoring an Ad Council campaign against "global warming"--though the "prominent" GOP members are not mentioned, aside from a former staffer:

Some prominent Republicans have joined the crusade against global warming, teaming up with the advocacy group Environmental Defense and the Ad Council to launch a series of public service announcements today about the threat climate change poses to Americans' future.

GOP pollster Whit Ayres conducted a major poll for the initiative, in which he found 70 percent of respondents believe global warming is happening and more than half think it stems from human activity. Tucker Eskew, former deputy communications director at the Bush White House, is also advising the campaign, which includes a series of edgy television and radio commercials along with a consumer conservation guide on the Web called "The Low Carbon Diet."

Environmental Defense President Fred Krupp said the ad campaign "is a wake-up call about the urgency of the problem, and a public service."

Here, apparently, is the result (from Greenwire, a subscription only site):

The image is stark: A middle-aged man stands on a set of train tracks as a locomotive barrels toward him.

"Global warming," he says, as the train's whistle grows louder. "Some say irreversible consequences are 30 years away. Thirty years? That won't affect me."

Then, with the train just feet away, the man steps off the tracks -- revealing a young girl who stands mute in the engine's path. The camera zooms in tightly on her unhappy face before a Web site address flashes on the screen: http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/.

The commercial is part of a national ad campaign launched today by a coalition of nonprofit groups that urges Americans to fight global warming by reducing their carbon emissions.

Here are four of the rather annoying ads, exploiting fear and using children to press home the urgency--while upping the "blame" factor:

Tick (video)

Train (video)

The Question (audio)

The Gift (audio)

David Roberts over at the Grist Blog already has a suggestion for his own "global warming" ad.