Microsoft wants targeted political ads on Xbox Live dashboard, courting conservatives

Microsoft wants politicians to pay for targeted ads that will appear on the Xbox Live dashboard and other Microsoft products.

The Washington Post reports that Microsoft officials were handing out promotional materials for this purpose this Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual conference for conservative activists and elected official in the United States.

The ads would appear on the Xbox Live dashboard and target different users by combining their Microsoft user IDs and other public data to build a profile of Xbox users. Using this data, ad campaigns can then be directed at specific demographics or congressional districts.

According to The Washington Post, Microsoft says that 38 percent of its 25 million Xbox Live subscribers in the US are women, 40 percent are married, and more than half have children. Microsoft is apparently “particularly aggressive” in selling its ability to reach women, Latinos, and millennials.

Xbox Live and games in general are no strangers to politics. During the 2012 presidential elections, Xbox Live launched a nonpartisan Election Hub in collaboration with Rock the Vote, NBCnews.com, and YouGov. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama also took out ads within Burnout Paradise.