The third Microsoft laptop hunters advert has dropped. This time around they’ve finally gone for a non-HP laptop, instead ending up with a pretty nice looking Sony Vaio, and instead of having a bubbly-hot girl or a euro-hot guy they’ve got a MILF and her annoying young son.

I predict that in a future installment we’ll see a retired couple who want to be able to talk to/see their adult children/grandchildren on the internets. They’ll smell like peppermint and stale urine. They’ll choose a 17″ HP.

The very brief appearance and criticism of a MacBook in this one (‘it’s a bit small’? seriously?) was awkward and unnecessary. Particularly so given that one of the stated requirements was gaming.

Apple computers really don’t get much of a look-in when it comes to gaming – not because the hardware can’t do it, the MacBook Pro has a fairly decent video card – but because so few games are ever ported over to run on Apple’s OSX, and those few that do make it over tend (with only a few exceptions) to do so years after release on Windows.

So unless you really really love Dark Castle, you’d think this was an easy point to score.

Of course unrepentant Macophiles argue they “use it to get things done without distractions” – which is complete bullshit, of course, but also a desperate attempt to eat their cake and have it, what with the Apple ‘I’m a Mac’ commercials repeatedly ragging on PCs as being boring grey business machines used for making spreadsheets. (That is when they’re not busy crashing, which incidentally this Windows Vista machine has still never, ever, ever done. Never had a virus either. Or spyware. Never even seen a hint of them.)

Obviously most Mac-using gamers* run dual-boot installs of Windows Vista or more commonly Windows XP alongside OSX on their Mac, but explaining that in a snappy way to the general public in a TV ad would be confusing at best – not to mention diluting the message, and pissing off Microsoft’s partners in producing this series of ads.

* People I generally think of as completely awesome – as they don’t tend to be choking down on Apple’s iPole, instead just using whatever platform suits them best for a given task, something I find eminently reasonable.

[NB: Yes I rewrote this post. The 1 minute version I threw down sucked. If you thought it was boring the first time and boring and long this time, then I apologise.]