I had lunch with my father recently and he mentioned the cool Microsoft commercial with the "clack, clack, clack" sounds and the guy bouncing his entire body off a table with one hand.

This little bit of conversation with my father, who is just a "normal" user with simple web, email and photo saving needs, brought some points up about Microsoft's advertising.

The Surface commercials are certainly memorable and my dad likes them (so do I for entertainment value). I think they brought Microsoft back into his mind in a positive way. But it isn't clear what product the commercial was actually for or why anyone would want it. Sure, you can tell it's for some kind of computer, but that's not specific enough to let people know why they should care. He (and frankly I) are long past our days of loudly slamming things around the room while we dance around, jumping on furniture or bouncing around on one hand. I know what a Surface is and the only thing I take from Microsoft's commercials is that they're exceptionally proud of their snap-on keyboards and the loud clack sound they make when snapping on.

Our conversation ended with that, but my mind wandered over to Samsung's recent commercials. I think Samsung is doing a better job of walking the line between entertaining and memorable and actually showing at least one thing that you can actually do with their product. Sure, I might think that one thing is inconsequential (file sharing by touching devices) or misleading (e.g. two apps open at once) but it's good marketing.