Annoying Political Ads Are Invading Pandora

A North Carolina woman named Crystal Harris was minding her own business, listening to Garth Brooks on the Pandora iPhone app, when she was hit with a prompt asking her to share her email with the Mitt Romney campaign. If this is the future of political advertising, we all might as well throw our phones in a pile and burn them.

Pandora advertisers asking for your email? Nothing new. However, this is the first year that political groups have been allowed to take part in targeted email sharing. But why did Harris, who said she's actually a registered Democrat, get hit with a plea from Romney? Stereotyping, of course. Harris, you see, lives in the south and was listening to country music, which obviously means she's a gun-toting, Marlboro-smoking, NRA card-carrying member of the GOP. Except, not.

Pandora defended the tactic, saying that both parties use it, and noting that you have to go through a full three step process before you even opt to the ads. But god. How annoying! We're listening to Pandora here ourselves, and it's oppressive enough as it is—our early 80s mix has played "Take on Me" three times in three hours. But at least we're not being tortured by political ads on top of that. Is it December yet? [Atlantic Wire]