Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads, 

There I was, minding my own business and paging through the Boston Globe, when I came across this full-page ad for the medical technology company Masimo, which is pursuing  a patent dispute with Apple over something something something about Apple watches.

“Here’s to the underdogs . . . “?  Why does that sound so familiar, Doc?

–  Apple Chord

Dear AC,

For starters, here’s how the Masimo ad (which also ran in the Wall Street Journal yesterday) begins.

Loose translation: Masimo is David, having developed medical monitoring technology that it alleges Apple – which would be the bully – stole for its Apple Watch, as Aaron Tilley has detailed in the Wall Street Journal.

Ad transition: The copy sounds familiar because it echoes a legendary 1997 Apple TV spot that would “eventually play a pivotal role in helping Apple achieve one of the greatest corporate turnarounds in business history,” according to adman Rob Siltanen’s inside account for Forbes.

The commercial was Here’s to the Crazy Ones, and these were its opening lines.

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules…

Here’s the spot, whose script Steve Jobs initially derided as “sh-t.”

And, for those of you keeping score at home,  here’s Masimo’s closing stock price yesterday after dropping six figures on full-page newspaper ads.

The Doc’s diagnosis: Actual underdog to be determined at a later (court) date.