TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

No ads on my Zune, please

Anyway, part of Microsoft’s pitch to advertisers is that because the company has so many different products and services for consumers–MSN, Windows Live, Live Search, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Mediaroom IPTV system, Windows Mobile, and so on–it can help advertisers reach end-users in more places with commercial messages they’ll actually embrace rather than ignore.

The idea is, apparently, that Zune users will be able to download free playlists in exchange for viewing advertisements. View a Dorito ad, and you get free music. Great.

I don’t like the further encroach of advertisement into areas previously free of it. I don’t listen to the radio at least in part because I hate the advertisements. They’re obtuse and loud, and tend to be for things I couldn’t care less about. They seem to be targeted at people in the same IQ-class as monkeys.

Seeing junk food advertisements on my MP3 player not only doesn’t make any sense to me, but it feels wrong.

Advertisements are not necessarily bad — just look at The Deck’s ads, which are subtle, relevant, and classy. I’ve clicked on quite a few of them on Daring Fireball and in Twitterific because I was actually interested in them.

Perhaps I would re-consider my position if the ads Microsoft delivers are relevant to a specific audience, but I doubt they will be. The Deck targets graphic and web designers, and it does it well. They can do this because they have a very defined audience they’re targeting, whereas Microsoft does not have a specific person in mind. Plus, I don’t think Microsoft could pass up the opportunity to make a bunch of money by taking advertisements from junk merchants.

If advertising was looked at as an opportunity to provide a service to people, by displaying relevant and useful companies, then this wouldn’t be so offensive. But that just isn’t the Microsoft-way.