Remember Lauren, the perky redhead who prowled for an affordable laptop computer in a 2009 Microsoft commercial designed to rebut Apple's juggernaut "Get a Mac" ad campaign? Of course you do.Even hardened Mac loyalists who grumbled at the ad's anti-Apple sentiments -- "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person," chirped Lauren at one point -- had to admit the girl-next-door-type's gleeful jig upon learning that an HP Pavilion costs less than $700 made for quality television.
The bipartisan Lauren lovefest was short-lived, though. Internet sleuths quickly uncovered a shocking truth behind the ad: Lauren wasn't some random hometown hottie who seemed perfectly fine with being filmed during a simple shopping excursion. Lauren was -- gasp! -- an actress.
Just like that, jilted tech nerds turned on poor Lauren De Long, as if she was the second coming of the "Dude, you're getting a Dell" guy. They took to the comments sections below the many articles written about the controversial ad to flame PC users duped by a pretty face. They uploaded videos to YouTube that trashed the ad and the actress. Some trolls even stooped to shaming De Long by reblogging a few compromising photos ripped from her MySpace page.
Eventually, the rabid geek mob moved on and forgot that Lauren De Long ever existed. But she still exists. And it's time for us to apologize.
Surprisingly, the online feeding frenzy the aspiring actress endured three years ago didn't push her off her chosen career path. And while her resume is still a work in progress, De Long has racked up a 2010 episode of "CSI: New York," and she will always be able to brag that she appeared on "Nite Tales," the obscure horror anthology series hosted, improbably, by Flavor Flav.
But how about if we help De Long reach even greater heights? She and fellow actress Tiffany Anne Price seem to be struggling to raise a mere $7,000 to fund "Craft Ladies," an eight-episode Web series about two women "who love to craft ... but aren't very good at it." With fewer than 20 hours remaining to pledge money to their Kickstarter project, the pair has received commitments totaling just $4,001 at the time of this writing. That's barely enough to buy five HP Pavilions, let alone put together a professionally produced creative endeavor.
Even if the idea of a do-it-yourself Web comedy about crafting isn't up your alley -- and, to be perfectly honest, it's pretty much the last thing we thought we'd ever be writing about -- we hope you'll join us in throwing Lauren some coin anyhow, and show her that even lifelong Mac users like us can feel a bit PC every now and then.
Check out the "Craft Ladies" Kickstarter page.
