Startups create their own video ads, posted on YouTube. Thanks to the Internet, all kinds of companies that haven’t been able to afford TV ads will be making video ads in the future.

The story of Anheuser-Busch’s online television network, Bud.TV (NYTimes, login required)

Bud.TV may be a marketing venture at heart, but it is marketing sotto voce. The shows’ plots won’t revolve around the quest for the perfect beer and a beautiful woman to share it with. Characters won’t declaim the virtues of Budweiser’s freshness at every opportunity. The site won’t be cluttered with banner ads. Anheuser-Busch executives are banking on a more subtle connection. Attach a brand name to something cool, something entertaining, and that elusive young man (and to a lesser extent, young woman) may check out Bud.TV’s offerings again and again, send them along to friends, even take a stab at creating his own minifilm for the site.