When XBL started there were no ads. Then there were gaming related ads. And recently I have seen movie, cellphone and even computer related ads. I didn't mind gaming related ads. But computers, cellphones,ect... Even when you sign up for most web sites if you get a free account you get ads. But if you are a paying subscriber it gets updated to ad-free. If I am paying 50 dollars a year for a XBL subscription (XBL Gold) , I expect an ad free XBL account. And that includes using my banwith for online gaming and for my Marketplace downloads, not for the ads that Microsoft is probably being paid to advertise. I believe its only fair that if you are paying for an XBL account (XBL Gold) it should be ad-free or only gaming (marketplace) related. And if you have a silver account then they are more than welcome to include the ads. It's only fair enough.