The 30-second ads feature a knockout woman surrounded by white consumer items. The spots, however, seem to be offering viewers more than just a good deal on a food processor or fax machine.
"Have you discovered the secret of the Big O?" purrs commercial actress Sabine Ehrenfeld.
The two spots, which display very little product but a lot of Ehrenfeld's legs and upper torso, are not only bolstering sales at Overstock.com - they have the Internet sizzling. The 41-year-old model with her hint of a German accent has apparently aroused something wild and weird in blog geeks.
Online scribes are fantasizing everything from romantic trips to Spain with the brunette mother of two to scenarios in which her languid delivery is really a cover for transmitting coded messages to terrorists.
In the end, perhaps one disgusted blogger made the best point: "You guys have no life . . . All commercials are stupid and make no sense. It just isn't that important . . . Get girlfriends."
Overstock.com, naturally, is delighted with the Sabine salivating. "We never expected this kind of interest," says Overstock.com vice president of branding Stormy Simon. "This is just bizarre - in a good way."
In a very good way, indeed.
Overstock.com's brand awareness numbers have jumped from 12 percent in 2003 to 46 percent in the last survey in November and continue to climb.
Simon insists, however, "The Big O" taglines were not meant to be sexual double-entendres. "The name of our company is Overstock.com. If that began with a U, it would have been "The Big U," she says. "It has been an educational experience for me that people are getting a sexual connotation out of it."
Naturally, Overstock.com plans more Sabine spots, Simon says. "We will be filming in the next eight weeks and we definitely want to bring Sabine back."
But she has heartbreaking news for bloggers around the world.
"I think we will move away from showing so much skin," Simon says. "I didn't realize that people would take it that way. Sabine is so unique that that is enough."
