Microsoft promoting Hewlett Packard - Why?

Why has Microsoft made a 60 minute advertisemnt showing someone buying a Hewlett Packard Notebook?

Windows Laptop Hunters $1000 - Lauren "Not cool enough to be a Mac"

If I was CEO of one HP's competitors, say Dell, Lenovo, Asus, etc., I'd be screaming down the phone to Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer.

On the surface, the ad appears to be a clever retort to Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads, but digging a little deeper reveals a lot of murky issues:

• Lauren will have to live with Vista;


• Lauren could save even more money if she didn't have to pony up for a Vista licence. If she wanted to install Linux, or dare I say, turn her laptop into a hackintosh, that Vista licence is a double-waste;


• MacBook Pros are arguably better machines, and come with an arguably better Operating System;


• Sticker price always neglect the total cost of ownership, where Macs are generally considered to provide better long term value.

Of course, other people have already commented on these and other issues: e.g. that "the ad was staged", and that the theme of the commercial seems to be “PCs: Computers for Losers”.

Another thing this ad shows is that Microsoft willingly ignores generally accepted rules of advertising. For example, according to the panel of The Gruen Transfer, the acknowledged leader in a market should never mention lesser rivals by name in its ads. Doing so lends credibility to the the challengers. That explains why Pepsi (number two cola maker) refers to Coke (number one cola maker), and never the reverse. And Telstra (number one telco in Australia) never mentions its rivals by name, whereas Optus (the second biggest telco in Australia) deliberately compares itself to Telstra in its ads.