The Salvation Army of Northern New England has started a new advertising campaign focusing on the charity’s low overhead costs.

The Christian group, in Portland, Me., is working with more than 40 local businesses to display ads in store windows, coffee cups, mirrors in bars, and the sides of buildings. For example, an ad on the inside of a pizza box says, “This ad cost nothing. The money we saved advertising on this pizza box helps us feed the homeless.”

“Recently, local businesses in Portland, Maine, helped us launch an ad campaign that cost absolutely nothing,” the group says on its Web site. “That’s right. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Sure, a big, expensive campaign could have gotten our name out there. But at what cost? See, it’s thinking like this that helps us give 83 cents of every dollar donated directly to the people who need it most.”

The Web site also includes examples of the ads and a television commercial developed for the campaign.

What do you think of the ads? Will they be successful?