Walt Disney became the first national brand to advertise on YouTube with the launch of an ad campaign Thursday for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," writes MediaPost. The campaign lasted 24 hours and consisted of rich media banners featuring Johnny Depp and a digital clock counting down the hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds to today's premiere of the movie (including "special midnight shows," according to the ad).

The "Pirates of the Caribbean" campaign was also the first time that YouTube has run graphic ads, according to its director of marketing, Julie Supan. The banner ads ran on every "watch page," where a reader-selected video plays (see screen shot) and on the homepage.

Supan said more than 80 million videos are viewed per day. YouTube's new ad sales force is now working to sell to national advertisers, she added.