Can advertising end war? We'll see.

Right now Lebanon's EFXFilms and Los Angeles based 900 Frames are shooting a commercial with carbombs blowing up and the message "Don't Suicide Bomb." The $1 million (US) dollar 60 second PSA slated to air on Iraqi television this summer - but will some cool special effects change anyones mind in this case? It's a tall order for one ad, and seems a bit like putting Hello Kitty branded band-aid on slashed wrists.

Newsweek article: This Is Your Street Mid-Bombing A Hollywood-budget public service announcement aims at discouraging suicide attacks in Iraq and elsewhere.

Onlookers were later asked to stand back as the pyrotechnic crew blew up a poor old Yugo coupe and stunt men and women, padded under their Arab garb, were thrust into the air with ropes and pulleys to simulate the impact of a bomb exploding.

"We all watch it on the evening news," says 900 Frames partner Drew Plotkin, "but we're using a 120-camera set up that was used in films like 'The Matrix.' It gives a frozen-in-time feeling. Instead of seeing a flash and ambulances racing to the scene, we're showing the street right before the attack, during and right after.

That will communicate the horror, the carnage, the human toll these attacks take on innocent civilians."

....A bit of preaching to the choir isn't it?