Here's Your Reminder To Enjoy Your 4th Of July Without Blowing Your Hand Off Like A Dummy...

I gotta tell you, I think they could have done a better job with this. Don't get me wrong, this was one of the more thorough public service announcements I have ever had the pleasure of watching. It had all the elements that you really look for in a philanthropic ad aimed at bringing attention to the hazards that stupid people present to themselves in society. 

The hardly believable dramatization? The overly simplified first hand verbal account of a tragic experience? A quick, eery snapshot of a hospital visit? A couple pictures of the spokesperson's children for no real reason other than mentioning the endangerment of kids gets people to pay more attention? A short, yet informative listing of the most painfully obvious safety precautions that should be taken around explosives? 

Check, check, check, check, annnnd check.

Still - while I appreciate them following the PSA handbook to a T - I think they may have been better served straying a little outside of their cookie cutter format. If they really wanted kids to start leaving the lighting of fireworks to the "fireworks professionals" then they should have skipped the sob story and just had JPP stand there with his grotesque, mutilated hand outstretched for 45 seconds. You know, a little something like this...

Sometimes less is more, and that absolute nightmare of an extremity accompanied by an aptly placed #FireworksHurt would speak more volumes than some bald, white narrator - with all his appendages in tact - ever could.