• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, September 22, 2006

This week, the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy tried to get in on Web 2.0, placing 12 anti-drug clips on video sharing site YouTube--nine ads and three clips from speeches by White House drug-policy advisor John Walters.

Results, so far, have underwhelmed.

As of Tuesday evening, the most popular ad had been viewed just 2,000 times. By Wednesday, the entire ONDCP channel only received around 14,500 views, according to the Associated Press.

By contrast, as of Friday morning a Fox News clip showing New York Congressman Charles Rangel responding to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's verbal smackdown of George W. Bush had been viewed almost 80,000 times in less than 24 hours.

The unpopularity of the PSAs shouldn't be surprising. Earlier this week, Ian Schafer, CEO of the agency Deep Focus, told OnlineMediaDaily that the spots weren't edgy enough to get far with YouTube users. "They're not especially jarring, since they're designed for television, so they're not the kind of things that work as viral video," he said. "They're very professionally produced, and there's nothing subversive about the descriptions, which give away exactly what the clips are."

For advertisers accustomed to a captive audience, a world where consumers choose their content is obviously going to take some getting used to. Sure, everyone who's watched TV in the last 20 years can recall the iconic Fried Egg this-is-your-brain-on-drugs spot--at least for the satires it inspired, if not for the actual message.

But not too many ads are that memorable; and it doesn't seem likely that even the Fried Egg spot's powerful imagery would be enough to spark viral interest.

Sure, many, many people still watch TV--and its ads--in real time. But those numbers are bound to drop as more and more consumers turn to the Web, where they can get video on demand, for entertainment.

YouTube users' chilly reaction to the anti-drug PSAs should send a powerful message to all advertisers--and content producers as well. When people can choose what to view, the same type of boring spots that have been running for decades don't stand a chance.