Microsoft and Apple are waging the most political ad war ever.

This is a version of a McCain-Obama fight from earlier in the summer. Looking for a way to pierce Obama’s cool persona, McCain’s campaign released its now-infamous celebrity ad. The goal was the same as Apple’s original ads—tap into an undercurrent of distaste about an opponent’s personality. McCain usurped Obama’s charismatic appeal and replaced it with a different, more sinister meme. Unsurprisingly, he steadily gained in the polls throughout the dog days of summer.

Obama’s response? An inverse of what Microsoft did to Apple. Instead of taking the celebrity moniker and improving it, Obama’s campaign dragged McCain down into the label McCain created. Its response ad used the same flashbulb optics as McCain’s ad and called Johnny Mac “Washington’s biggest celebrity.” Its intended effect is the same as Microsoft’s—to put you on the same level as your opponent. Obama subverts the “celebrity” label by trying to reclaim it. (It didn’t really work for Obama, partly because Paris Hilton drowned his response ad out.)

Last weekend, Apple began countering Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” spots. In both of the new spots, Apple assumes you’ve seen Microsoft’s new campaign, which are seemingly on every channel, every hour of the day. Apple’s first ad takes aim at that ubiquity.

It’s an attack on process meant to reflect Microsoft’s character. The average computer-buyer doesn’t care about how much Microsoft is spending on advertising. But they do care about customer service, and Apple suggests Microsoft is too busy convincing people to buy a shoddy product to actually fix the shoddy product.

The same process-minded philosophy applies to Apple’s other ad, as well.