Kofi Annan and Bob Geldof appeal to advertising giants to join in their campaign to tackle climate change

Cannes is an odd place to launch a campaign to tackle climate change. But the French Riviera resort, stuffed full of expensively air-conditioned hotels – and, currently, the advertising industry's top brass as the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival takes over the city – today played host to Kofi Annan and Bob Geldof as they launched their "Tck Tck Tck" campaign in the run-up to the UN global climate change summit this December in Copenhagen.

In fact, Annan and Geldof want this to be more than a campaign. They want a climate justice movement to be born amid the acres of polished marble and €15 vodka and tonics of the French Riviera and launched an appeal to ad agencies and their clients to place Tck Tck Tck logos on their advertisements. Consumers can then upload their own individual "Tcks" to the campaign website, representing the seconds counting down to Copenhagen and the immediacy of the issue at hand.

The former UN secretary general hopes that the campaign will force politicians into action. "We're asking people to lead in situations where the leaders have not woken up yet. And if the people lead they will catch up and take action. We don't have much time. But I think an effective, serious campaign in these six months could change the dynamic," he told MediaGuardian.co.uk. "I'm not saying it will change everybody's mind, but it could change the dynamic and put energy, into the process – a sense of urgency and an understanding if we don't act now it's going to be much costlier for all of us in the future."

Celebrities, actors and singers are also currently being rounded up to sing a new reworking of Midnight Oil's protest song Beds are Burning. Once recorded, people will be able to download it for free from the campaign website. By doing so, individuals will be adding their names to what it is hoped will be the word's largest petition in support of climate justice.

The echoes of Live Aid were clear – and not least because Geldof was on hand to make clear in his trademark passionate style the link between climate change and poverty: it is those who can least afford it who will suffer most. Change was possible, he said, pointing to the success of smoking bans. Who would have thought the French would stop smoking – or the Irish would obey any laws at all, he joked.

The campaign is an extraordinarily ambitious initiative, aiming to influence consumers and companies worldwide. "But this is the only way we can look at this issue," Annan said. "We are all in this together. It's not an issue where you can solve it in one country and make it OK – we either swim or sink together.

"We all have to act regardless of whether you think your country is responsible for 00.1% of pollution or 85%. We need to hold together; work together to make it happen." Some countries will of course have to do more. "When I hear people say we have a right to pollute, I say no, we have a responsibility to protect our planet. This is why getting the polluter to pay for the damage he or she does is an important disincentive."

Key to getting a successful treaty from Copenhagen, of course, will be the attitude of countries such as the US. "Obama is an encouraging sign," says Annan. "He has changed the position of the US administration. He's made it clear that climate change is important – we've seen change in Washington."

The irony of launching a campaign which emphasises the links between global climate change and poverty at the advertising festival – where the air miles wracked up by delegates in even reaching the presentation and the cash lavished on entertaining (although this year greatly reduced), hardly bear thinking about – cannot be ignored.

But in a year when the advertising festival's famous excesses appear to be reduced this could, perhaps be the time when the industry might, as the ad men would say, "really make a difference". Havas, the world's sixth-largest global advertising and communications group, has developed the campaign with Annan and the Global Humanitarian Forum of which he is president, and advertisers such as the energy company E.On are already on board.

There will, of course, be cynicism about companies and organisations that stick the Tck Tck Tck logo on advertising for their products, thereby greening their products, without taking steps to tackle their own pollution issues. Annan, however, believes the act of signing up to the campaign will make companies reassess their policies. "I can't imagine a company that would put a Tck Tck Tck on its ad campaign or website, and continue to operate without [being greener]. Its own staff, its own workers will be reminded what are we doing here."

Those companies that do start to tackle their own waste and emissions will also reap the rewards, he said. "The really visionary leaders are those who help green the economy. I think each company that wants to survive and prosper will have to begin to change. There is no question that the world is changing: the question is, can we change fast enough?"

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