Well played, sirs.

Following their public dumping at the hands of Apple, Adobe have come back. But rather than adopting the bunny-boiler tone of the jilted lover, they've deftly played the freedom card. William Wallace will be giving them a thumbs up from his grave. Mind you his thumbs probably got chopped off by the English when they tortured him to death.

Now to be honest I'm not technically adept enough to understand the core reasons behind the break-up other than the TMZ version in which Apple dismissed Adobe as a dying relic from another time, a little like leaving your partner for getting too old.

And to be fair this new campaign isn't getting universal love. Many believe that Adobe needs to compete with better technology, not cute words.

That said, what I find really clever about the Adobe response is that it's precisely the kind of thing "1984 Apple" would have said. And it reinforces a growing view that Apple has in fact become what it was invented to defeat.

So for that, kudos to Adobe and Goodby Silverstein & Partners.