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Targeted Political Ads for Microsoft Products

posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday March 18 2014, @07:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the suddenly-not-a-game dept.

Vanderhoth writes:

"According to a story from the Washington Post, Microsoft is using gamer profiles to create targeted political ads. The article talks mostly about XBox Live, but other services like Skype and MSN will be included. The article also presents some interesting, to non-gamer, stats about the typical gamer that Microsoft was promoting at the CPAC. As an example, 40% of it's 25 million subscribers are actually married! who'd of thunk it?"

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:13PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:13PM (#18303) Journal

    From the article:

    " The ads, which would appear on the Xbox Live dashboard and other Microsoft products,

    Nope. Really, I have to pay Microsoft extra to shove ads in my face? Not even once.

    " Those numbers are important, because they represent key demographics that are among the most contested in political races. Microsoft is particularly aggressive in selling its ability to reach women, Latinos and millennials; across the company's other platforms, such as MSN, Microsoft has developed consumer categories like 'Ciudad Strivers' and 'Nuevo Horizons' "

    Wow. First of all, even as a self-loathing Mexican I found the names of those consumer categories to be extremely patronizing to a condescending degree. And, believe me, I'm no fan of Mexicans. But second of all, I'm having a hard time deciding if this was a brilliant new idea or a stale, retarded idea 8 years too late. For example, is this a tacit admission that the demographics are up for grabs because Obama pissed off enough people to scare them away from the Democrats? Or is is just pandering to people who traditionally vote Democrat (Hispanics have typically Republican values but vote Democrat for the handouts because they subscribe to a Mediterranean value system which is extended social welfare through the family)? Or is it just shitting up the user experience for more money? Nothing is a coincidence when money is involved.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by melikamp on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:32PM

    by melikamp (1886) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:32PM (#18311)
    You have to keep in mind that Microsoft itself is a multimillionaire rent-seeker, and "votes" Republican. "Those numbers are important" because these are the demographics that the party of the %0.01 is desperately trying to brainwash with ads.