HP Accidentally Uses macOS Screenshot in Ad for Windows Laptop

Wednesday October 19, 2022 5:12 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol

Windows PC maker HP appears to believe that "the perfect laptop" is one that runs macOS — at least according to an ad the company promoted on Reddit. The ad shows an HP laptop with a macOS screenshot in what is clearly a Photoshop job gone wrong.

HP macOS
"For the digital nomads and work from anywhere-but-home types (yeah, we see you), HP has perfect laptops for wherever you're working from," the ad says. The macOS screenshot shows a Gmail inbox in Chrome, with an Apple logo visible in the menu bar.

Apple's licensing agreements do not permit macOS to be run on PCs, but there is a Hackintosh community of users who unofficially install macOS on PCs. Apple did allow its System 7 operating system to be licensed to other computer vendors in the mid-1990s, but the program was discontinued by Steve Jobs when he returned to the company.

Update — October 21: The ad has now been deleted.

(Thanks, @aaronp613!)

Top Rated Comments

Albright

45 months ago

Personally, I find the ellipsis with only two dots far more objectionable.

But maybe the whole goal of making an ad with these mistakes is that the… uh, rather passionate people at Reddit and elsewhere would notice and talk about them, thus getting the otherwise rather mundane ad in front of more eyes than would normally see it. Mission accomplished, I suppose.

Score: 60 Votes (Like | Disagree)