News Flash: Adobe ♥ Apple

The escalating Apple-Adobe feud is fascinating and fun to follow.

But it isn’t really a fair fight.

The Adobe team must recognize that they have little chance of cajoling Steve Jobs into changing his mind about shutting Adobe’s Flash software out of Apple product development.

So if you can’t beat ‘em, and you can’t join ‘em, what’s Adobe to do?

The answer is a new ad that proclaims the company’s love for Apple. And creativity. And innovation. And so on. Kind of a kill-them-with-kindness approach.

It’s also a less direct message for the thousands of professionals who use Adobe software on Apple products every day (web developers, graphic designers, etc.).

OK, so Adobe isn’t going to win this battle. But the ad and its connected landing page are a good way to score some points by playing nice—or at least appearing to—in contrast with the scathing critiques of the big, bad bully.