I think the chosen ad is the worst of the nominees. It seems that the people judging the contests are the "linux purist" type. We shouldn't emphasize so much on freedom, as a lot of people don't give a damn about that and they also have the utterly wrong impression that they have freedom even if they are using proprietary software. A Linux ad should focus on the fact that Linux is gratis, stable and fast. "Freedom" is an ideologist's reason to use Linux, not your average Joe's. I'm disappointed.

I found the "Challenges at the office" to be quite a good one. It was the only one from the nominees that explicitly showed that Linux will CUT YOUR BILLS TO THE GROUND. This is a very important aspect of Linux, especially in these times. I think I liked The Origin most, but yeah it's a bit too abstract for people who don't know what it's about.

Well, they have two of them, don't they? And you must make sure you remove both at the same time!

If I were you, I'd install Archlinux + XFCE on that. That would almost surely be fast as hell, but for a linux newbie impossible to achieve. If you want something really easy to install, try Xubuntu (it's Ubuntu with a different, lighter desktop) or maybe even U-lite (an Ubuntu-based distro, trimmed for performance). Whatever you do, have fun! :)