I watched Super Bowl XXXIX last night and one of the ads that I watched closely was the Napster to Go Ad where they urged viewers to "Do the math". The ad features the Napster mascot in the seating area of the stadium holding up a sign that gets the attention of the television camera. The sign shows the following:

• Apple logo + photo of iPod = $10,000
• Napster logo + photo of three non-iPod portable audio players = $15 per month

This ad reminds me of a political campaign ad because it compares apples to oranges (forgive me for the double-entendre). Many people who are following the portable audio market understand that the iTunes Music Store offers most songs in its catalog for 99 cents. Napster asserts that since some iPods can hold about 10,000 songs, it costs $10,000 to fill a large iPod with music. This is misleading at best.

For one thing, unless you've been living under a rock you already have a collection of music on CDs. You paid for the right to personally listen to those songs in perpetuity, so ripping them to your iPod will cost you nothing. You can also buy many songs from the iTunes Music Store for considerably less than $0.99, as I did when I bought a Van Halen greatest hits album with an iTunes gift certificate in December.

Napster To Go's offer of $15 per month seems cheap until you think that works out to $180 per year. I could easily argue that over the useful life of a portable audio player, let's say three years, you'll pay $500 to Napster. At the end of that period, you will have the right to listen to none of the music you've enjoyed previously unless you continue to pay.

I may not end up buying 500 songs through iTunes within the next three years, and if I don't Napster to Go might not be a good alternative for me.

In fact, both models have their strengths and weaknesses, but by trying to make the iTunes model seem ridiculous, Napster discredits itself. Why not produce an ad that is respectful of the industry leader, saying that "Napster offers an alternative" that you may find attractive?

I think the comparison of the Napster to Go Ad to a U.S. political campaign ad is natural. My first thought when I saw it was "Gee, that's funny math." What do you think?