All Ads, All the Time. Yippee!

As if giving the Geico cavemen their own sitcom wasn't bad enough, NBC Universal has decided to launch an all-advertising video web site at the beginning of next year.

The site, called Didja.com, is intended to become "the go-to destination for on-demand advertising content," according USA-Sci Fi President Bonnie Hammer, quoted in Variety.

If everything goes according to plan, advertisers will eventually pay for prominent placement on the site, and even create their own little sites for their brands within Didja.com.

If it sounds like an idea cooked up by a bunch of network execs sitting around a table, that's because it is. Sell advertising space on a site full of advertising! Create a world filled only by ads, financed by ads, where your audience doubles as one big ad focus group!

The name, for one, is a bit of a head-scratcher. Didja? A highly unscientific survey of the people sitting near me revealed that I am not the only one who is puzzled by the URL's intended meaning. Apparently, it's supposed to play off the phrase, "Did ya see that?" Hmmm. A big conceptual leap to advertising.

NBC-U plans for the site to have social networking features ("You love old 'Tide' ads? I love old 'Tide' ads!") and allow super-fans out there to contribute their own tributes to brands. Both of which hinge on the very dubious idea that people really like advertising that much.

Blame the Budweiser's frogs and Apple's "Mac vs. P.C." Once networks got it in their heads that viewers could actually seek out advertising, they were powerless to resist the temptation of virtually cost-free site content and a new way to strengthen relationships with big advertisers.

But consumers didn't just all of a sudden start liking ads, ads started to occasionally be entertaining. Sure, people can't get enough of that talking gecko -- that doesn't make yawn-worthy campaigns throughout he past 50 years suddenly any more compelling.

Didja is being billed as a YouTube competitor, although advertising spots like the ones Didja will provide comprise only a small fraction of YouTube's videos.

The new site will also have to contend with one other road bump: Part of the fun of YouTube is that the content is generated by users, existing beyond the reach of "establishment" interests like brands ... and brainstorming network executives.

by Liz Gunnison