Idiots

Idiot: a person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning

* * * * *

A decade or so ago, back in college, we were asked to design an advocacy campaign to discourage people from setting off firecrackers on New Year's eve. I don't remember exactly what we did, just that it was the typical scare-the-shit-out-of-these-kids graphic that the DOH is fond of.

We never had the chance to test it but I'm not sure it'd have worked. At least not with the numbers we were targeting.

I think the problem is not that the ads are no good, but that ads like that don't really work. Think about it: when was the last time you gave to a charity or recycled or did anything just because there was a graphic, in-you-face ad telling you to?

Maybe it's a case of the medium not being effective enough.

Every year there are still people getting their fingers blown off. Are these the guys who do not watch TV? Or maybe they're the ones who (like most people) think that it's something that happens to other people.

Or maybe they're just idiots.

I understand the ethnic Chinese who are following tradition and literally have money to burn. I understand the residents of gated communities who try to outdo each other's light shows. What I don't understand are the people who can't even manage three square meals a day spending more money than I do on firecrackers. (Money that some of them got from me last Christmas.)

So can someone explain to me the reasoning behind all this? Do they just like seeing things go boom? I'd ask them personally but the explosions scare me.