Syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington, an outspoken critic of the drug war, has joined forces with Hollywood producer Laurence Bender and environmental activist Laurie David to produce television commercials urging patriotic Americans to get their SUVs off the road and, for the sake of national security, drive fuel-efficient vehicles.  "Three weeks ago I wrote a column and asked this rhetorical question: What about a people's ad campaign?" Huffington, now a 50-miles-per-gallon Toyota Prius owner, told the Washington Post from her Brentwood, Calif., home. "So we've started a little nonprofit called the SUV Ad Campaign, and we've raised $35,000 in small donations with no effort at all." 

The ads-which "Got Milk?" campaign creator Scott Burns has agreed to direct pro bono, Huffington said-are styled as biting parodies of the latest government-supported public service announcements linking illegal drugs to all manner of murder and mayhem.  One script calls for "quick cuts of various people in their SUVs looking out the window talking to camera and driving away. . . . Their deliveries should be mindlessly cheerful-Person 1: 'I helped hijack an airplane.' Person 2: 'I helped blow up a nightclub.' Person 3: 'I funded a terrorist training camp in a foreign country.' . . . Group: 'And we did it all just by driving our SUVs.' Super 1: 'Where does the money you spend on gasoline really wind up?' Stock footage of terrorist training camp. Super 2: 'The biggest weapon of mass destruction is parked in your driveway.'"