MANCHESTER, N.H. — In the most frequently shown Republican campaign commercial here so far, a grouchy cast of characters complain that “no one has shown up we can trust as a conservative.” The presidential candidate they are searching for, the commercial concludes, is former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, to which one of the characters harrumphs, “Why haven’t we heard of this guy?”

The answer to that question is simple: money. Mr. Huntsman’s campaign, which is betting entirely on a strong showing in New Hampshire to stay alive, has relatively little. The commercial came not from the Huntsman campaign, but from a group called Our Destiny PAC.

The group, financed in part by Mr. Huntsman’s billionaire industrialist father and guided by one of his former political advisers, has breathed new life into a campaign that otherwise lacks the resources to do much more than literally go door to door seeking votes.

Aides acknowledge that if Mr. Huntsman is to have any chance at pulling off an upset victory here — and they say that is still possible in this highly volatile Republican race — he is going to need Our Destiny PAC to keep its ads on the air until the primary on Jan. 10. But, prohibited by law from collaborating with the political action committee, aides are supposed to have no control over what the group does, despite its intimate ties to the campaign.