The UK government has decided to convince us all that climate change is real. To this end it is spending £6 million on a prime time advertising campaign featuring a father reading a bedtime story about the evil carbon dioxide monster created by grown ups which is making rabbits cry.

In perhaps the worst advert for stopping climate change I’ve ever seen, the cringe worthy short has the father telling his child how scientists found that global warming “was being caused by too much CO2, and it was the children of the land who’d have to live with the horrible consequences” (transcript).

When the child asks plaintively “is there a happy ending?” a disembodied voice proclaims, “It’s up to us how the story ends.”

Well in that case I want Al Gore to ride in on an IPCC dragon and slay the carbon monster with his sword of Inconvenient Truth.

The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change says a recent poll found less than 20% of citizens think climate change will impact their children. “The survey results show that people don’t realise that climate change is already under way and could have very severe consequences for their children’s lives,” says climate change minister Joan Ruddock (Reuters).

It’s a worthy cause, but an awful advert.