The other day, I was watching NFL free agents scroll on the right side of the screen of SportsCenter while eating my lunch.  I looked down at my food, back up at the screen, and down at my food again.  It was then that I realized I thought I had seen something odd (and no, it wasn't that the Browns had made a great acquisition), but everything on the screen seemed normal.  I then rewound for 10 seconds and realized that ESPN had replaced the scrolling players for about five seconds with an ad for the next Planet of the Apes movie!

We're all familiar with the idea of product placement and that companies may insert their brands into shows, but I had never seen such a blatant ad thrown into a broadcast like this.  It's a little weird to me that it ESPN is doing this, as just about they have been the Cable Champions of the DVR era, continuing to dramatically grow ad sales as people tend to watch sports.  

I'm curious though if this is just a sign of things to come.  Will Brian Williams reports on the debt ceiling soon be flanked by ads for Goldline?  Only time will tell, but this could be an interesting development for television advertising.

I found this interesting enough to snap a pic on my phone, so I figured I would put it up in case it piqued anyone else's interest.