Recently, I was asked by friend-of-the-site Oliver Y. if I’d be willing to use a free TV that came with inescapable ads. My reply? “Not a chance in hell”.

Since the earliest days of this site, I’ve bemoaned the relentless march of advertising into every corner of our lives. TV has, of course, long been full of ads. But these days, most streaming services offer tiers free of advertising, and I find an ad-free experience well worth paying a bit more. By contrast, the idea of bringing a screen into the house that does nothing but show ads makes me a little sick.

In the late 90s, there were attempts to subsidize things like software and internet service with ads. It was a losing strategy then, and I sure hope it’s a losing strategy now. I have some hope that it will be, because one, television sets have been incredibly inexpensive for years, and two, the people most likely to take this offer are surely the least attractive to advertisers.