On being perfectly adequate

It's been a busy week, so there's been little time for blogging. What's more, I haven't really seen anything that interesting to blog about.

That's a point I wanted to make: I blog about spots and videos that are interesting to me, that inspire me one way (with glee) or another (with disgust).

While I knew I wanted to write a blog about raising the art of political advertising, I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to write about day to day, week to week. Mostly, I've been posting about things that come my way. Last week, whether because I was too busy or because it's the dog days of summer, nothing really inspired me.

That's not to say I didn't watch any videos -- to the contrary, I probably watched 4 or 5, on health care, on alternative energy, a couple of candidate ads... And,...? Well, they were boring.  Perfectly adequate. Not one of them was memorable or really got my blood boiling to write about.

That's the thing about adequate, it doesn't offend, it's safe -- it probably tests pretty well in a focus group, but it doesn't move you one way or another. (As a relevant aside, did you know that "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Hill Street Blues," and "Seinfeld," all tested poorly with focus groups? That's the thing about greatness:  it's new and different, and I've already written about different.) I don't want to be giving out B- and C+'s; I want to give out A's and D's -- that's where the fun is.

If all we strive for is perfectly adequate, all you'll get is good enough. Good enough not to offend, good enough not to be embarrassing, good enough not to be remembered. Where's the fun in that?