Yahoo Inc. said Thursday that JibJab Media will create two animated short films as the Internet company looks for ways to expand advertising by adding new content.
JibJab's "Grumpy Santa," posted on Yahoo.com Thursday morning at http://movies.yahoo.com, features a broke and stressed-out Santa Claus sick of busting his "frigging hump."
Jim Moloshok, Yahoo's senior vice president of media and entertainment, said characters from the JibJab shorts will be added to Yahoo Messenger -- where people use animated characters to express feelings such as joy or frustration.
In the future, Yahoo could find placement for advertisers within animated films, Moloshok said.
JibJab's political parodies "This Land" and "Good to be in D.C.!" were e-mailed to millions of viewers during the recent U.S. presidential elections. Its second film for Yahoo, due around the time of President Bush's inauguration in January, will star a cast of world leaders.
Earlier this year, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo struck a multi-program content deal with reality television outfit Mark Burnett Productions. As part of that deal, Yahoo integrates exclusive content from "The Apprentice" television show throughout its site.
Companies like Yahoo, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet unit have helped lead the revival of Web advertising and have profited from their efforts to find creative ways to target ads to the growing audience of Internet users.
Yahoo, which also creates content for its music, movies and sports sections, is not alone in branching out. Online retailer Amazon.com is showing short films on its home page this holiday season.