We bought our tickets online well in advance. We stood in line to get a decent seat in the packed theater. We watched with a certain amount of “Oh, wow!” marvel as the first 3D special effects played out. And then, well, we were really impressed with how realistic everything appeared to be: crazy, monster-looking animals; floating mountains; giant alien “people”; futuristic helicopter warships. The execution of James Cameron’s Avatar is stunning.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_JBMrrYw8]

That said, am I the only one who thinks the story is kind of boring?

I am certainly glad to have seen Avatar. It almost seemed that I had to in order to keep up with what’s happening in society … in our industry. As I thought about this fabulous movie that is making an amazing amount of money driven by a rather predictable story that takes a very long time to play out, it seemed that there are lessons to be learned.

• People like to be wowed.
• Perfect execution can take even mediocre content a very long way.
• The basic themes driving humans—good versus evil, love, heroism and hope among them—might be tried and true, but they still hit us where we live.

Think about that the next time you develop a campaign.