FX: We Dare You to Skip This Ad

The war on DVRs' fast-forward button continues. This time, at least it's an artistic attempt at snagging your attention and not, like Philips is considering, an outright disabling of fast-forward features on TiVos and their ilk when ads are being played.

This time, FX is trying a trick designed to make you see an ad, even if you're zipping fast at 12x speed. The ploy is simple: Display a single image on the screen for the entire 30-second commercial. Instead of a jumble of images, the viewer sees the same message repeated over and over, creating a still and seamless image amid the chaos. Will it stand out? Sounds like it could. The ad is for FX's series Brotherhood, and it begins running on September 22, at least in the United Kingdom. No word if it will play in the States the same way.

Of course, this kind of ad won't do any good for those of you using TiVos modified to skip 30 seconds at a time. Don't know this trick? It's the simplest thing in the book and will make your TiVo twice as useful. Just follow the instructions by pressing the six buttons noted on this page to enable the 30-second skip.

Hmmm... now that I think of it, maybe FX is actually getting better publicity for its new series by appearing on this blog and others than all the ads on its own network would provide. Well played, FX! Well played!