Firebrand.com: All Commercials, All the Time

Just yesterday, I was complaining about a patent filing from IBM that would allow for commercial interruptions on DVDs. Now here's Firebrand, a Web site and TV show that runs nothing but advertisements—albeit very good ones.

The L.A. Times has an interesting story on Firebrand, which launched an hour-long show on the ION network on Monday that features nothing but ads, along with—oh boy—"CJs" who introduce the spots. The Times reports that the ads were picked by "commercial curators" on the lookout for Super Bowl-quality commecials, and that while some of the ads are paid, others are shown purely for their entertainment value. Meanwhile, on the web, we have Firebrand.com, a reasonably slick web site that lets you view and rate the same advertisements that you'd see on the TV show.

I went ahead and browsed some of the ads on Firebrand.com, and yes, they're pretty good—in some cases, better than many of the shows they might interrupt. In one commercial, a hip dude with cool hair chases a scantily clad woman holding a Diet Coke; sounds kinda lame, except in the ad, they're running on the walls and on the ceiling, just like in "The Matrix." Also on tap: a European Xbox Live ad in which the pilots of twin jetliners race each other across the tarmac. There's also a Nokia commercial starring Gary Oldman, as well as a series of classic ads, such as Apple's legendary "1984" spot. Scrolling captions let you know who produced and directed the ads, and you can also register for contests and offers from the various sponsors.

The whole a-show-with-only-commercials thing isn't exactly unprecedented (remember "World's Funniest Commercials"?), and as the Times points out, there have been plenty of Web sites that tried the "get paid to look at ads" model (Brightspot.tv being the latest casualty). At least Firebrand is doing something different by focusing on commercials that have some artistic merit (or are just plain funny and/or bawdy, like those GoDaddy ads from a few years back). Indeed, judging from what I've seen on the site, these ads probably cost more per second than the last "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.

But are people going to come back again and again simply to watch ads, even if they're really good? As good as the spots were, I'm not sure when (or if) I'll be heading back. And you?

Related:
Show pitches ads as entertainment [Los Angeles Times]