I'm still not sure what surprised me more when I saw Overstock.com's (NASDAQ:OSTK) "It's All About the O" television ad for the first time. Was it that the campaign was naughtily suggestive or the fact that Overstock was actually advertising to a national audience of couch potatoes?

There was a time when online companies would cough up boob tube ad money simply because their coffers runneth over. Why did Monster Worldwide (NASDAQ:MNST) and a pre-Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) HotJobs.com pay millions for Super Bowl ads featuring their job sites? Why were we subject to the annoying Pets.com sock puppet? Well, the companies had easy access to capital and it probably felt more productive than simply running in place.

These days the dot-coms that are sponsoring tv spots are doing so because it just makes sense. You can argue that the grandiose musical eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) ads seem to be a bubble-era throwback, but that's almost the point. It survived. It thrived. It's a company that has been woven into our country's very fabric.

While the "O" in the slick ad stands for Overstock itself, it could just as easily stand for Online or Overdue. In fact, since being singled out as a Rule Breakers stock pick last month, its shares have risen by 49%.

The company is heading toward another strong holiday selling season. Over the weekend it had indicated that traffic to its site was up by 40% on Black Friday. With Shopping.com (NASDAQ:SHOP) expecting overall online sales to grow by 20% to 30% this year, Overstock is once again ahead of the pack in growing its slice of the e-commerce pie. And that's certainly one case in which it's perfectly acceptable -- if it's all about the O -- to Overeat.

Are Overstock's closeouts and $1 shipping policy just the ticket to win over the Web-enabled shopper? Why do you think the stock has been on a tear lately? What can get in its way? All this and more -- in the Overstock.com discussion board. Only on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a fan and occasional shopper at Overstock.com -- but not on Black Friday. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.