Lauren's back - and HP says she's still a PC

Lauren - the not-cool-enough-for-a-Mac gal in Microsoft's Laptop Hunters commercial - is back.

An HP commercial that had been running on Hulu but appeared on broadcast television over the weekend features Lauren (or someone who's supposed to be Lauren) holding her HP laptop, which is showing the original Lauren commercial on the screen. We never actually see the person's face in the HP commercial, going along with that company's other "HP: The Computer is Personal Again" commercials.

(I couldn't find a video clip of the new commercial anywhere online but here's a screen grab from a MacObserver post. I saw it on TV Sunday evening.)

It's interesting how Lauren - who's supposed to be a real person in the commercial but is widely believed to be an actress  - and her commercial became a bit of a YouTube sensation after the original aired. And those were mostly parodies and other video responses, including one that breaks down the original commercial to show that Lauren never really entered the Apple store.

It just goes to show that Microsoft isn't the only one out there having to push value as a way to get people to buy Windows. The problems with Vista - as well as the anticipation of Windows 7 - is surely taking its toll on the bottom line of companies like HP and Dell, which likely aren't seeing many buyers for Windows PCs these days.

In a post last week, I shared my reasons for finding more value in - and buying - a used iMac over a new Windows machines. If Windows 7 had been out in time for Back to School, then maybe I would have given Windows another shot.

But it wasn't. So I didn't.