TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Stephen Hackett:

I don’t think the Surface ad is as effective as Apple’s were, however. It’s not because the spot is bad — I actually think it’s pretty damn clever. But Apple went with the brand building after it had introduced the world to the iPod. People knew what white headphones meant in 2007. I’m not sure people know what a keyboard case is about in 2012 quite yet.

Just look at the very first iPod ad Apple aired. It showed a guy dancing around with his white earbuds, but only after he had the thing hooked up to his iBook to transfer music to it.

Stephen makes a good point. Apple’s first iPod ad showed precisely what the iPod does—you sync your music to it, and then you can have all of your music wherever you go. A thousand songs in your pocket. Microsoft’s Surface ad, by comparison, is introducing a very new kind of product as well, but it doesn’t do much to explain what it does and what’s unique about it.

The ad does, though, show that it’s a tablet by Microsoft, and the center of the ad is the keyboard case—which I suppose is what Microsoft thinks is what’s unique about Surface (the convenience of a tablet and the power of a PC). Perhaps that’s enough; the ad is engaging, so that might be enough to get it stuck a bit in people’s minds and push them to look up what Surface is.

I think what this reflects is the confused purpose of Surface. In reality, it’s a nicer PC with a touch interface, which doesn’t exactly make for a good tagline. Apple’s intent for the iPod was singular and focused, so “A thousand songs in your pocket” stuck. It was blazingly clear what it did and why it was unique. From the way Microsoft positions Surface, though, it looks like a nicely-designed PC in a tablet form-factor. Is that it? Is that the sell?