It depends, some of them are pointless if noone notices or remembers what product/brand they are for. But some of the ones that have no real relevance to the product are not pointless if they get people talking about the product. For example, I heard loads of people talking about the the fairly recent Orange ad where they had a middle aged/older couple moving together and 'in touch' with each other. Not short and to the point, but clever, and in my opinion, successful.