Apple targeted Microsoft in the latest round of the Mac versus the PC. Steve Jobs’s company came up with two commercials tweaking Microsoft’s marketing strategies. Even if the commercials were released for that sedentary audience to ponder in between kickoffs this weekend, both ads missed their objective, because it looks like they are made for the tech industry fans rather than the NFL fans.

One of the commercials has John Hodgman in his role as PC allocating stacks of bills toward either “advertising” of “fix Vista”. Of course, Vista gets nothing, suggesting that Microsoft is not interested in fixing this problem. The other commercial is also about Vista: Hodgman has developed a buzzer that bleeps out “Vista” whenever that word is said, so that people will start using the term “Windows” instead of Vista. The ads are called “The V Word” and “The Beancounter”. They have two main targets: get under Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s skin, and continue to define Vista as a glitch-ridden OS. Even if Vista’s early problems with application and driver compatibility are well known, Microsoft is spending more time these days talking about Windows 7. It seems that the ads had quite a success, and we can say that because Apple’s sales have grown.

Of course, we can also say that Microsoft now knows how to respond in case an operating system is released by Apple. These ads are a clear response to Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign that launched last month, with the participation of Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. While the Microsoft ads are working on changing the perception of Microsoft, Apple’s criticism towards Vista in well received by the consumers.