It was hard to miss the news that Apple announced a pair of new iPhone models last week, and some of the company's competitors were quick to step up their marketing campaigns in response. Nokia tweeted an ad joking about how they were first with a line of multi-coloured phones, but Microsoft went one step further and made a video series mocking the new phones.

Unfortunately, the videos weren’t received particularly well. Featuring two 'employees' presenting their ‘innovative’ ideas to Apple executives, the ads were criticised for their low production values and ineffective humour.

Perhaps most controversially, however, was that one of the executives shown (only the back of his head was visible) bore a strong resemblance to late Apple head Steve Jobs. Although the similarity was likely unintentional, Microsoft was accused of bad taste by some social media users.

Microsoft quickly pulled the videos after they were uploaded. They told The Next Web “the video was intended to be a light-hearted poke at our friends from Cupertino. But it was off the mark, and we’ve decided to pull it down.”

As is often the case in these circumstances, the videos were quickly re-uploaded to YouTube by several third parties:

Microsoft and Apple have both launched significant marketing campaigns over the years directly aimed at their competitors. The most famous example of this was Apple’s ‘I’m a Mac...’ campaign, which saw actors Justin Long and John Hodgman act as personifications of a Mac and PC. In the UK, there was a variation of the series starring comedians and Peep Show stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb.

In all versions, the ‘Mac’ character was shown as slick and modern compared to a dull and clunky ‘PC’:

Microsoft responded with an ‘I’m a PC’ campaign, criticising Apple's efforts for resorting to stereotypes: