Woodsy Owl. The crying American Indian. Your brain on drugs. Al Gore.

As you've probably heard by now, the former Vice President has entered the world of large-scale advocacy campaigns, with a three-year, $300 million advertising blitz beginning today aimed at promoting climate change awareness, education and solutions.

The Alliance For Climate Protection campaign, called "we" (as in "we can solve the climate crisis"), will utilize most media platforms in its attempt to spread the word to as many people as possible. The first online spot is narrated by actor William H. Macy and equates the battle against climate change with the fight against fascism during World War II and landing a man on the moon. The first television commercials debut tonight during shows such as "House" and "Law & Order"

The Macy-narrated ad, while a bit too heavy on the melodrama, is none-the-less a good starting point. What we're really looking forward to are the forthcoming Alliance commercials featuring unlikely pairings in support of the same cause: The Dixie Chicks and Toby Keith; Newt Gingrich and Rep. Nancy Pelosi; and our favorite, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson.

Given that Coke and Pepsi each spend $1 billion per year marketing their products, $100 million per year promoting such an important issue sounds like chump change by comparison. It's not, of course, and the scope of this campaign is impressive. Illustrating the bi-partisan nature of the climate change problem is vital. Hopefully the ads will do more than just make people laugh.

It will be a while before we're able to tell whether the $300 million would have been better spent on, say, alternative energy research and development. The Alliance believes their goal of mobilizing 10 million volunteers to lobby their elected officials for meaningful policy change will be equally effective. We think it could be.

"I've tried everything else I know to try," Gore said this week. "The way to solve this crisis is to change the way the public thinks about it."