Etherium is in the same park as NXT and Ripple. Average Joe will just not understand it. The only people who are really getting excited about these are the techies and investors. I can just about explain BTC to Joe Bloggs, but they wouldn't get these types of currencies at all. They fail because not because they aren't clever or unique or innovative, but because you have to be in the industry to understand them. Your average person on the street has no clue how fiat currency works. How can you expect them to understand Ether?

Dogecoin on the other hand, as ridiculous as it may be, has brought cryptocurrency to the masses. People get it. It doesn't matter how clever your platform is if you can't appeal to the lowest common denominator.