Everyone knows Al Gore stars in the...

Everyone knows Al Gore stars in the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" however who created "Al Gore's Penguin Army," a two-minute video now playing upon YouTube.com?

In the video, Gore appears as a sinister figure who brainwashes penguins and bores movie audiences according to blaming the Mideast crisis and starlet Lindsay Lohan's shrinking waist size onward global warming.

Like other videos forward the popular YouTube site, it has a home- made, humorous quality. The video's maker is listed as "Toutsmith," a 29-year-old who identifies himself as being from Beverly Hills in an Internet profile.

In an e-mail exchange with The Wall road Journal, Toutsmith didn't answer when asked who he was or on what account he made the video, which has more than 59000 views onward YouTube. However, computer routing information contained in an e-mail sent from Toutsmith's Yahoo account indicate it didn't ensue from an amateur working on the outside of his basement.

Instead, the e-mail originated from a computer registered to DCI collection a Washington, D.C., public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp.

A DCI cluster spokesman declines to say whether or not DCI made the anti-Gore penguin video, or to explain wherefore Toutsmith appeared to be sending email from DCI's computer "DCI arrange does not disclose the names of its clients, nor do we discuss the work that we do forward our clients' behalf," says Matt Triaca, who heads DCI's media relations store

Dave Gardner, an Exxon spokesman, confirms that Exxon is a client of DCI. however he says Exxon had no character in creating the "Inconvenient Truth" spoof

"We, like everyone otherwise on the planet, have seen it, on the contrary did not fund it, did not approve it, and did not know what its source was," Gardner says.

SAVVY MARKETING

The anti-Gore video shows a less well-known side of YouTube. As its popularity has explod the public video-sharing site has drawn marketers looking to build whisper for new music releases and summer blockbusters.

Now, it's being tapped by means of political operatives, public relations skilled hands and ad agencies to sway opinions. Ogilvy & Mather, for example, says it plans to pillar amateur-looking videos on Web sites to spark word-of-mouth whisper about Foster's beer.

DCI is no stranger to the debate athwart global warming. Partly through Tech Central Station, an opinion Web site it operates, DCI has sought to raise doubts about the science of global warming and about Gore's film.

Of course, Gore and his allies have also used the Internet to great advantage. To stoke interest in his film, the distributor of "An Inconvenient Truth" Paramount Classics, created its be in possession of YouTube video by cartoonist Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons." Called "Al Gore's Terrifying Message," the video has had more than a million views. Paramount is identified as the source nearest to the video.

YouTube, with thousands of videos forward its site, has an estimated 20 million viewers daily.

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