At the same time, it's considered poor practise to give servers open internet access. The only outgoing connections that should be allowed are to update servers. I'd second disabling this 'feature' on a server - it seems very unnecessary to get a MOTD from the internet in the first place, let alone if there's going to be advertising in it.

That's exactly right! Think of it, like Google's doodle that sometimes appears above the search bar. Interesting, fun facts, that likely have nothing to do with what you're Googling ;-)