Microsoft loses Lauren and gets Giampaolo to go on the Mac attack

By Davey Winder
Sunday, 05 April 2009 04:05

Technology

The latest Microsoft ad has gone public and, like the first, goes straight for the Mac jugular. Leaving controversial Lauren behind, now it's the turn of cool Giampaolo to make a power point.

Considering the fuss that sprung out of those Microsoft adverts featuring 'Lauren' who opts for a Windows PC over an Apple Mac on price alone, you might have thought Microsoft would take a different line with the new advert.

And, indeed, it has. Firstly, Microsoft has lost Lauren and secondly it has switched the 'what you should buy' argument focus from one of low cost to high performance.

Instead of on a tight budget Lauren we get the "technically savvy" Giampaolo who knows what he wants. And that, it turns out, is a laptop with power and a decent battery life. However, there is a budget and it is still pretty low at just a maximum US $1500.

The confident character reckons he is cool enough for a Mac, but opts for a PC because he is "really picky" instead. He admits the MacBook is sexy but then goes on to dismiss it for being "about aesthetics" and not "computing power."

"I don't want to pay for the brand" Giampaolo complains "I want to pay for the computer."

Oddly enough, that computer turns out to be yet another HP, this time a Pavilion HDX. Even more oddly, for a Microsoft advert, there is no mention of Windows throughout. The software side of things is ignored by the advert makers and by Microsoft.

I am at a loss to understand how the OS is treated almost as an irrelevance, or how the MacBook can be dismissed for not having enough computing power. I have no axe to grind, running both Apple and Microsoft machines, but simply do not get the point of these adverts.

They seem to be more about selling HP laptops than selling Windows, or am I missing something?