Brew Tube Droops.

Switching the focus of one's advertising from TV to new media is a big step for a company and the story of Bud tv shows that old habits die hard.

The attempt to have a direct relationship with a potential customer is smart thinking, but I was struck by the paradox of a soft sell and the frequent references to maintaining control.

Marketing experts argue that it’s a small price to pay for connecting with today’s more skeptical, harder-to-reach consumers, and they urge companies to relinquish control and learn to love it. Anheuser-Busch executives do not agree. “I think YouTube does what it does just fine,” Schumacker said, adding, “I don’t want to be YouTube.”

Could this be the reason for the apparent failure of the venture as reported in Ad Age?

I think so because while they are right, in one sense, to say that "shoving those ads to the Web, where the multitasking, short-attention-span crowd spends hours and hours, won’t suffice" , I think their characterisation of the net users is wrong and somewhat patronising, while other spectacular ads have flourished online because people discover them and pass them around in a way that they are not consumed on TV.

No you shouldn't just move your ads ads online, but it's even more important to realise that you shouldn't move your old attitudes there as well.