Hilary Duff and Wanda Sykes on "That's so gay": Knock it off!

This really IS "so gay" ... and I mean that as a compliment.

The Advertising Council, a group that has been creating public service ad campaigns since 1942, is launching today the first campaign in its history to speak out against defamatory speech against gays and lesbians.

The campaign specifically tackles the troublingly popular phrase "That's so gay", which has become a common slang for "That's stupid" or "That sucks". The campaign has been produced to support GLSEN (The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) to combat the bullying of gay teens.

There are radio, television, and print ads in the campaign featuring celebs including teen queen Hilary Duff and comic Wanda Sykes, both of whom tell teenagers using the phrase "That's so gay" in a derogatory fashion to "Knock it off!"

And the campaign's website, ThinkB4YouSpeak, features video and interactive tools to teach kids about what the homophobic words they're using actually mean. And really, when pop songs like Katy Perry's "UR So Gay" are encouraging 10-year-old girls to run around calling people "gay" for no reason other than it's apparently "funny" or "edgy" (and somehow with the support of the gay media, which boggles my mind), we need all the help we can get.

To read more about the campaign and the council, check out this story in the NY Times. And after the break, check out one of the campaign's more eye-catching ads.