They Go On was an dot-com era Internet-only soap opera developed by Levi Strauss & Co. and NBC Digital Productions and streamed from NBC's website. The show, funded entirely by Levi Strauss, was based on characters from their advertising campaign of the same name. Dot-com (also dotcom or redundantly dot. ... The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television... Levi Strauss & Co. ... Streaming media is media that is consumed (read, heard, viewed) while it is being delivered. ... The 1986 Peacock logo, designed by Chermayeff & Geismar. ... The front page of the English Wikipedia website. ... Advertising campaign is series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). ...

The show featured characters from the ads, such as D.J. Marcus and the Impala man, with two lead characters introduced for the show, Chloe (played by Laura Prepon) and Zack. Chloe and Zack interacted with the viewers during the "broadcast" via an Internet forum that was part of the website. Laura Prepon (born March 7, 1980) is an American actress, best known for her role as Donna Pinciotti on the Fox television series That 70s Show. ... Gaia Online, the largest English language forum-based community as of April 2005 — powered by phpBB. An Internet forum, also known as a message board, discussion board, discussion forum, web board, webboard, or, more simply, a forum, is a web application which provides a place for discussion, often for online...

Tarsem from @radical.media directed the orignal ads. NBC Digital Productions then created a new media drama which tied together the ads and added interactive features. New media usually refers to a group of relatively recent mass media based on new information technology. ...

It was touted as an new example of the blurring of the lines between advertisements and entertainment, an alternative to product placement, infomercials, or various forms of undercover marketing. Product placement is a promotional tactic used by marketers in which characters in a fictional play, movie, television series, or book use a real commercial product. ... Infomercials are television commercials that run as long as a typical television program (roughly thirty minutes or an hour). ... Undercover marketing is a subset of guerrilla marketing where the consumer doesnt realize theyre being marketed to. ...

External links and references

• Levi Strauss decides its jeans could use a little soap (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/1997/09/29/newscolumn3.html), a September 1997 article from the San Francisco Business Times
• NBC continues TV/Internet convergence with Snap! alliance (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DUO/is_n33_v39/ai_21078922), from an August 1998 Shoot article
• The Fall Girls (http://www.maximonline.com/entertainment/articles/article_520.html), a September 1998 article from Maxim identifying Prepon as Chloe