Anti-climate change ad features killer

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CHICAGO, May 5 (UPI) -- The head of a Chicago think tank said the group would take down billboards linking climate change concern to figures like Fidel Castro and Osama bin Laden.

A Heartland Institute billboard featuring a large mug shot of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski went live Thursday afternoon next to the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago, The Washington Post reported. Underneath the picture were the words "I still believe in global warming. Do you?"

Within an hour, Joe Bast, the libertarian group's president announced the sign was coming down.

"The Heartland Institute knew this was a risk when deciding to test it, but decided it was a necessary price to make an emotional appeal to people who otherwise aren't following the climate change debate," Bast said in an e-mail.

In addition to Kaczynski, bin Laden and Castro, the institute planned to use California killer Charles Manson in its PR campaign.

The billboard provoked considerable negative reaction. Among other things, a spokeswoman for Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said Sensenbrenner would not speak at an institute conference this month if the campaign continued because he "wants nothing to do with this kind of name-calling."