We're pleased to have Ad Age curating the YouTube homepage today, in a spotlight that celebrates the creative revolution going on now in the advertising and marketing business. In other words, these are ads you won't want to miss. Ad Age digital lead Michael Learmonth and Creativity managing editor Ann Diaz explain further in the video and guest post below:

We, in the business press, love to obsess over YouTube's business model, whether it can make money from the world's video through advertising. But today Advertising Age is curating the front page of YouTube to help tell an even bigger story, and that's YouTube's impact on advertising itself.

Once, TV ads were pretty much foisted on the public. Turn on the TV, and they were there. Some were great; most were not. Indeed, in some TV ads the intent is to annoy and grab the attention of a passive public. Enter YouTube. And while all of that is still true, the marketing world now has another powerful, democratic vehicle to reach a TV-sized audience. But there's a catch: the ad has to be something people want to watch.

Each day, YouTube is a global referendum on the world's video, and ads are very much a part of that mix. TV ads have always had the power of sight, sound and motion; now, to reach an audience in an on-demand world, they also have to delight, entertain and tell a story. That has inspired a creative revolution in the advertising and marketing business, just as it has in entertainment and attracted new talent to the industry. It has also refocused the industry away from obsessing over who's skipping the ads to producing ads no one wants to skip. Just like you can buy a 30-second spot on TV, you can also buy media on YouTube, but you can also earn an audience there, and increasingly ads, both made for the web and for TV, attempt to do just that.

Witness the Super Bowl advertisers, on the hook to the tune of $100,000 a second for time in the big game, increasingly gear their campaigns to live on on YouTube after its over. Or, take Evian's "Live Young" aka the "rollerskating babies," which never appeared on TV but have been passed around and watched more than 71 million times over the past year. The beauty of what works on the web is that there are no hard and fast rules. Ad Age picked some of the best of the recent best with a big hat tip to our sister pub, Creativity. It's true that YouTube sells ads. But it's also true YouTube has made advertising better. Take a look.

Michael Learmonth, Advertising Age, and Ann Diaz, Creativity

Here are some upcoming opportunities for our Spotlight Videos module (if you don't see it on your homepage, add it here!) and @youtube Twitter love. Spotlights run a few times per week and showcase interesting and timely videos from our community and partners, all organized around an event or theme. Tag any appropriate and relevant video with the tags below to be considered for these spotlights. Please note that themes and dates are subject to change and spotlights may be added or dropped without notice.

3/7 -- Oscars: parodies, predictions, 2010 event footage from news and entertainment partners (tag: ytoscars)
3/17 -- St Patrick's Day: we're looking for any and all intriguing content related to the holiday (tag: ytstpatty)
Calling all curators! Partners like BoingBoing, alphacat and TEDTalksDirector recently curated our homepage, usually around a holiday or theme -- for example, alphacat picked his favorite videos for Black History Month and TED got 2010 Prize Winner Jamie Oliver to select his favorite TED Talks. We get a kick out of showcasing people who have a knack for finding hidden gems or who like to express their tastes and personality through video curation.
Calling all video Twitter-ers! We love to help spread interesting, timely YouTube videos and news. So if you're Tweeting a YouTube video, be sure to include @youtube so we can see your Tweet -- and ReTweet, if appropriate, to help you amplify your video and message. See what this looks like: CBSEveningNews, NYTimes and BarackObama.

If you're interested in being a curator or have ideas for a theme we haven't mentioned, please send an email to mia@youtube.com (until we can get this blog's comments fixed!).

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, Editorial/Community