Microsoft's new Lauren is a tech-savvy engineer with a complicated, foreign name, tasked with finding a laptop that'll address his needs for under $1,500. You'll never guess what this Microsoft-paid probable-actor decided to buy.

That's right, it's a not-Mac! I mean, it's an HP! It's hard to keep track, since the only complaint the commercial brings up is that Giampaolo (henceforth referred to as "John") wants to pay for the components, and not the brand. And that's a fairly reasonable point of view, according to our study of the infamous "Apple Tax." It's true, John simply cannot buy a new MacBook with, say, 4GB of memory for under $1,500. But as any Apple fanboy knows, with Apple, your premium pays for the software, and for Microsoft (primarily a software company!) to take the position that software has no impact on value is an odd choice.

Listen up, Microsoft. I'm typing this on an HP laptop running Windows 7, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I like Windows, and not just because I'm too cheap or not cool enough to own a Mac (both are true, but neither is relevant). So how about you find something to campaign on that doesn't double as an insult, like "PCs are cheap," eh? [YouTube]