A lot of hurt from an ad

I'm hearing a moans and groans from the Mac fanboys!  Just look at the number of comments from the Engadget blog regarding the ads with Lauren and Giampaulo.

While the previous Microsoft responses to the "I'm a Mac" ads have been utterly lame, these new ones hit the right spot on.  The current state of the economy have made these ads that show frugality resonate with the viewers.  Lauren and Giampaulo both lambast the Macs on their price.  Lauren shows us that we don't need to be cool to buy a Mac, as being cool = having $.  Giampaulo, however, set some pretty high standards and ended up buying a laptop that has somewhat the opposite of those standards (battery life on an HDX?? Helloooo!).  But then again, one must remember that these are ads, and they are actors -- not some random dudettes and dudes on the street.

Something odd is going on though.  They both preferred HP.  You can totally change the Microsoft logo on the ad with an HP one, and still deliver a similar message.  Is HP paying for this ad?  Or is this a favor from Microsoft?  Remember the Vista Ready program?  HP is now experimenting with both Ubuntu (Mi = Mobile Internet) and Google Android program.  This ad could be a boost to get back HP deep into the Microsoft fold.