By Daniel Flitton
Labor's plan for an advertising blitz to sell the benefits of the carbon tax has hit a snag - the word ''carbon'' is a turn-off for the public.
Fairfax has learnt the Gillard government has begun market-testing slogans to be used for ads to coincide with the mid-year introduction of the carbon tax.
A fresh wave of television and print ads are being considered to ensure public awareness of financial compensation after the carbon price commences on July 1.
A government source familiar with the strategy said the ads were at the research stage but had been bedevilled by difficulty in settling on phrases to describe the carbon tax.
People tested responded negatively whenever the word ''carbon'' was used to explain the changes.
Any new campaign would follow a $20 million ad run last year after the legislation was first introduced, promoting a ''clean energy future'' for Australia.
Coalition leader Tony Abbott has relentlessly pursued Prime Minister Julia Gillard over her pledge before the 2010 election not to introduce a carbon tax.
''Carbon'' has become such a vexed term the Macquarie Dictionary recently included a second definition to reflect its use in political debates beyond the description of a physical compound or instead of ''carbon dioxide''.
A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said no decision had been taken on future advertising.
''The government will continue explaining its clean energy future policies to the public and is committed to doing so,'' she said in a written statement.
Environment campaigners admit the public has become ''fatigued'' by the years of fierce debate around climate change, making it more difficult to get a message across.
Campaigns manager with Environment Victoria, Mark Wakeham, said, ''We generally talk about 'greenhouse pollution' because people understand it more easily''.
Climate Institute deputy chief executive Erwin Jackson said people were generally willing to pay to tackle global warming, but only when convinced a policy will work.
''The opponents to the emission trading scheme have been very successful in tying 'carbon' and 'tax' together.
''So, from that point of view it's not necessarily surprising, you ask a group of 100 people in a room do they want to pay more tax, most of them are going to say no,'' he said.
Any government advertising strategy is subject to assessment by the independent communications committee in the Finance Department.
A spokeswoman could not say last night whether a new proposal was under evaluation.
Another $3.9 million was also spent last year on distributing brochures to households.
Labor said at the time the total cost for promoting the carbon tax was smaller in scale and cost to information campaigns rolled out when the Howard government introduced the GST and WorkChoices.