Those mass mailings drive me nuts, we literally get probably a pound of fliers a week with no known way of getting off their lists. And we’re just one house out of millions…

And while I agree that poorly targeted advertising is the biggest problem, I also find advertising that blatantly obstructs, obscurs or masquerades as CONTENT offensive. Like any person, I prefer not to be aware that I’m being “pushed” into something.

Dragging it back on topic: Ironically, Pandora’s main purpose is ACTUALLY to advertise music to me, but I gain a lot of enjoyment out of said music with zero obstructions (sponsors, censored lyrics, station identifications, etc). And the music is targeted at my tastes (based on what I’ve told it that I like). So it’s definitely a win-win. I’m just afraid that all the recent attention will cripple its servers or attract bigger investors that will gobble it up and then water it down. I just want to enjoy it for awhile before that happens.

I think the whole reason we find advertising offensive is that it’s typically so obvious and poorly targetted. I’m litterally offended by the crap fliers I get in the mail all the time. Why should I have to pull pictures of animal guts out of my mail when I’m a vegetarian? This is bad targetting offending the audience.

Amazon ads placed inline in somebody’s text online are perfectly clickable when they show me where to buy something I’ve just been reading about. Far from offensive, they can often be helpful. Isn’t that what advertising should be? Helpful?

Anyhow, I know this has nothing to do with Pandora, but I can’t see it from where I am and you started this tangent.