Several former employees of Firebrand.com, the ads-as-content site that folded despite millions of investment dollars and plenty of sexy French commercials, are coming together to start their own ad agency. Because when you fail at giving something away for free, try selling it instead. [Adrants]

Yesterday we found out that Firebrand, the big-money "advertainment" website that hoped to turn commercials into content that people would actually seek out, is going under. Not too surprising; the whole reason the TV ad genre is in trouble is that people don't want to see ads, and can now skip them with DVRs. But at least Firebrand will leave a useful legacy: it brought sexy French ads to the outside world. It already offered us the world's sexiest fruit ad, and now, as a bon voyage, we bring you this ad for "Naturism" in France. It ranks even higher than the fruit ad—probably due to being more SFW (still not 100%), but making you wish it wasn't.

Is Firebrand.com, the "advertainment" website funded by a multimillion-dollar investment from Microsoft, NBC Universal, and GE, going to be shut down? [UPDATE: Another tipster tells us that Firebrand was shut down yesterday, and that all employees have been told to hand in their Blackberries and not return to the company's headquarters]. [UPDATE 2: An hour and eleven minutes later, the NYT makes it official]. And regarding yesterday's rumor that Saatchi & Saatchi X might get folded into its parent company, the agency's CEO Andy Murray says it isn't true; "This is not the kind of operation you just fold into another agency. A very weird rumor with absolutely no merit," he writes.