Advertising...coming to an MMO near you

Listening to NPR this morning, a discussion of the Emmy's came up (surprise).
With listings of various winners of last nights awards.
One big winner was Mad Men on AMC.
Basically the show talks about big business and advertisers during the 60's.

This then segued into a piece on the new ways of product placement or called "Product Injection.
Advertising is finding it's way into the actual story of the show. "Organically" was the proper terminology they used.
The product is integrated into the story in some way, and actually mentioned or is part of the sets, etc.
For example: Mad Men had an episode where they were finding a way to advertise Heineken beer for women. Heineken paid for this spot, and the product was used profusely during the episode.

This takes me to the awesome show "Eureka" on Sci-Fi network where I felt it was quite "fun".
The story is that in this small town of Eureka, a large company, Global Dynamics, was losing money according to the DoD (Dept of Defense).
So now all projects are sponsored by "Degree" under arm deodorant to help finance their research.
Adding to this fun, regular commercials have been created and are playing on the station (and on the website if you click through above. you can see a banner). These commercials use a "AI" styled robot who is slightly goofy (like the Sherrif, the main character of Eureka) who is AMAZED over how well the deodorant works. All within futuristic settings.
Hilarious.

Ok, so this is a long post and so far, I have yet to discuss the main topic.

How does this involve MMO's?

As of late we have seen the playfulness of our MMO's of choice using funny names or things that represent real world objects.
WoW now even has the Harley in game! (woot?).
But, we can see the execs, their brains trying to wrap around this audience who is NOT watching TV, and how they can sell their products NOW! within the MMO universe.

So, I got a hold of a memo from the "We do it betterz" advertising agency on how they plan to approach these MMO's of choice.
Look at some of these great idea's.

World of Warcraft - They will now have it so each food vendor will be advertised on the main map with a large "Golden Arch". People will eat Big Mac's to renew health, and drink "Coca Cola" to gain mana.
Their motto is "Over 10 11 million served in Azeroth"

Warhammer Online - Trying to play catchup, all dwarven females will be given red pig tails, and all male dwarves will be bearded (whats new) but will all have crowns.
Their motto is "But we grill ours, or if you wish we can get you a frosty"

Age of Conan - Now all clothing that you cannot seem to find in game will be sold at one store...Victorias Secret.
Their motto? "Told you we were mature...no really.."

LOTRO - Lately people have noticed strange new markings on their maps in game, but not too many know about them yet. They look mysteriously like Golden Arches.
Their motto is "We are going to be almost as big as those other guys. Call us No. 2"

I am still investigating, and will report when I have found more of these mysterious ways that advertising will be integrated in our MMO's down the road.