ZuneMan: The conundrum continues

The devil made him do it. Or maybe it was Bill Gates.

No matter. The internets are having a jolly mock-fest over a man who took brand marketing to an alarming plateau. Our sister site Engadget is a-twitter over the happy Microsoft Zune fan who got not one, but two Zune logos tattooed on his beefy arms.

With the amount of chatter going on about this chap, you might think he'd be in for his 15 minutes of fame as a sort of underground Zune spokesman. But there are a few problems:

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s MP3 player Zune is widely seen as a decided also-ran next to the ubiquitous Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod. And even though Microsoft hired college students to help flack Zune during its launch late last year, there are certain tacit rules when it comes to using people to help promote a brand: One of them is that they gotta seem cool and attractive to other people.

In other words, not big-'n-geeky and living in your parents' basement. That sort of endorsement doesn't exactly help Zune's cause.

The fan in question is flying out to Microsoft's Seattle headquarters in July. Maybe the company should pay him not to do it any more favors.