Like most of the planet, I managed to go see Christopher Nolan’s magnificent epic “The Dark Knight” this weekend. This sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins” set box office records, raking in $155.34 million dollars domestically, breaking the $151.1 million dollar record set by the massively inferior “Spiderman 3” in 2007.

Now, with the semi-provocative title of this blog, you might expect a list of possibly humorous lessons people in our industry can learn from the Batman. Well, not today.

I’m giving you one genuine lesson we can learn from this movie, and it’s this: Quality attracts the biggest audience.

I hear the objections already. “But ‘Spiderman 3’ did huge box office!” True, but that movie opened big on the strength of “Spiderman 2,” which was actually quite good. Besides, I didn’t say that junk couldn’t do well (see “Two and a Half Men”), but that great work does the best (see the Mini launch or Altoids or, one of my personal favorites, Fox Sports NBA “Alan and Jerome” campaign).

You, Ms. Client, are already dropping the cash to create and run an ad, so why do you insist on dumbing it down? If you’re lucky enough to be presented an ad that could be the equivalent of “The Dark Knight” or “Fargo” or “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” why would you turn it into something more akin to “Superman Returns” or “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”?

Seriously, would you have enjoyed the movie more if the Batsignal had been 10 percent bigger?

Don’t answer that.

Later,

Fox