Call it the Microsoft vision of marketing. Taking everyday folks, or people with one quirky talent, and using them to sell their computers. And hey, it's working out better than their ads with a traditional star like Jerry Seinfeld!

Now Dr. Pepper is in on the deal too. Knowing that their soft drink is prized among MMORPG nerds who need the caffeine and sugar to stay up late playing World of Warcraft, the label recently decided to sign "celebrity athletes" like the Tom Taylor, the 21-year old kid who has a three-year, $250,000 contract to play Halo 3.

And you end up feeling torn, right? Because on the one hand yes, celebrity athletes get an obscene money for their endorsements, just like they get an even more obscene amount of money to throw/kick/hit a ball around. So let's let the skinny ADD kids who can't concentrate on anything longer than three seconds unless it's on a computer screen have their shot at the big leagues.

But. And this is a huge but (just like the ones on the kids who play Halo all day!)…

Are we really at a point where we reward kids for playing video games for 21+ hours? At least Michael Phelps did something at the Olympics, at least he has that freakish merman body that defies human biology.

Not to shit upon the success of the kids in these gaming competitions that end up getting sponsored by Old Spice and Panasonic, but even the promoters seem to be patronizing their consumer base:

"They really are rock stars in their own little world,” (manager of the Dr. Pepper's interactive team) Mr. Lyons said.

Don't get me wrong, in this economy you make money any way you can, even if it means playing Counterstrike all day and then making a deal to have your face plastered on the side of a Mountain Dew bottle. And it's smart to sell a concept that these kids can relate to.

It's just a really squeamish feeling inside knowing how quickly American advertising culture is turning into a William Gibson novel by way of Philip K. Dick.