Apple slams Microsoft with rubber chickens

????By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

????Like a politician with high approval ratings, Apple (AAPL) has responded to Microsoft’s (MSFT) attack ads by ignoring them.

????After a four-month hiatus with no new “Get a Mac” spots, Apple released four in a row Sunday (available at Apple’s website and pasted below the fold).

????None of them deal with the charge Microsoft has been hammering home in a series of 60-second TV ads and a quasi-independent “white paper“: that spec-for-spec, price-conscious consumers get a lot more bang for their buck with Windows PCs.

????Instead, Apple’s new ads stay relentlessly — and entertainingly — on message, sticking with the “Hello, I’m a Mac …” conceit and focusing on the one thing Microsoft’s campaign never mentions: the difference in terms of the user’s experience between Windows and Mac OS X.

????The joke may be getting a little tired after three years and more than 50 variations on a theme, but humor is always more appealing than hard sell.

????And unlike Lauren De Long — whose career as a paid actor undermined the credibility of her decision to choose an HP (HPQ) Pavilion on camera over a Mac — John Hodgman and Justin Long aren’t pretending to be real people.

????The game could change if Windows 7 turns out to be as good as beta testers say it is, and Microsoft can start to challenge Apple on its home turf.