The Guardian is a widely-respected paper, but it has been having a tough time attracting an American readership. It has made some big hires — such as Glenn Greenwald and Ana Marie Cox — but still, traffic to its United States coverage has been low. To help turn things around, the paper has decided to launch a six figure ad campaign.

According to The New York Times, the Guardian’s effort (pictured above) is running on billboards and online. Each ad features two sides to a hot topic, such as online privacy and women in the military. The Guardian is hoping that people will also tweet a picture of the ad that represents their view.

The spreads are clever, but we doubt this will attract new readers. The main problem is that there’s already about 5,734 U.S. media outlets for people to digest. People are overloaded as it is. So despite its track record, The Guardian is fighting a battle for American attention that it cannot win.