Gore urges ad execs to help fight global warming

By Gavin Haycock

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Former U.S. vice president and environmental campaigner Al Gore urged the world's top advertising companies on Friday to work commercially and voluntarily on promoting the movement against global warming.

"Lend us your most creative designers and advertising geniuses and give us their time to help devise the most powerful and compelling messages ...," Gore said in a speech to ad executives at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.

"The solution must be global in nature ... and the message has to be part of the solution," he told the festival, which sees thousands of ad executives fly in from around the world.

The dedicated climate crusader, dressed in a black suit, was probably one of the few people at the seaside resort wearing black, Texan-style boots at an event where many executives were in T-shirts and beach footwear.

The week-long event, a highlight on the annual advertising calendar which has run for 54 years, awards excellence with so-called Lions trophies and hosts seminars and workshops. It is also well known for all-night parties in beachside cafes.

"The advertising industry, one that in the past has sometimes been pointed to as crass, and exploitive and has focused on ends over means as much as the worst industry, actually has men and women who care so deeply ...," Gore said.

"You can make the crucial difference. We have everything we need to solve this process with the possible exception of political will," Gore said. "But political will is a renewable resource."

After the 30-minute speech, which received a standing ovation, he was given a specially modified green Lions trophy.