While interesting 30-second web ad making the rounds on Friday may sacrifice some clarity in the pursuit of cleverness, this spot communicates an important message.

“If they find it, they’ll play with it,” the narrator in PSA entitled “Playthings,” created by the group Evolve Together. “Always lock up your guns.”

With apologies for the explicit imagery, watch the ad below:

While this ad may not be the most coherent advocacy spot ever crafted, it’s basically harmless. “Our PSA is humorous, but the message is serious,” said Evolve Together co-founder Rebecca Bond. “Parents need to take ownership of safety in the house. If you don’t want kids to play with it, put it away – it’s up to you to keep your stuff locked up.”

Not so, say gun control advocates who are fuming over the ad which treats gun owners with some respect (if patronizing and risqué premises like this can be considered respectful).

Over at The Daily Banter, Tommy Christopher has some thoughts (mild language warning):

This requires ignoring the vast differences between gun culture and dildo culture, because aside from their similarities as surrogate penises, there’s little common ground there. Dildo owners don’t bring their kids along for dildo-using trips, or dildo practice, and you’re not going to rent a dildo at a dildo range and have it jump in your kid’s hand and kill him. Most kids don’t know you have a dildo, and won’t spend every available minute alone looking for it.

Coining a new term which is soon to be mandatory when talking about gun control on MSNBC, HyperVocal’s Neda Semnani called the ad a message from a “pro-gun-responsibility group.” Because “gun safety organization” just wasn’t catching on.

“The attempt to bring lightness to a heavy topic is much appreciated, but equating a sex toy to firearm seemed more than a little bit weird,” she added

“How do you get conservatives to love a gun-safety PSA? Perhaps the secret is to add a dildo. Or two,” read the lede in an article by Abby Phillip in The Washington Post.

Phillip noted that gun rights advocates like conservative radio host Dana Loesch appreciated the ad, but everyone on her side of the issue agreed.

“An ad about sex toys is supposed to make us think about an issue as serious as proper firearm storage when kids are in the house?” wrote TownHall’s Katie Pavlich. “The ad isn’t funny. In fact, it’s immature. Instead of promoting safe storage of firearms, it does the opposite by trivializing a serious issue.”

I guess the lesson is, as is frequently the case when it comes to contentious social issues, there’s no pleasing anyone.