this is nothing new. Companies have being paying models to go to bars and tourist site and use their products.

Pharmaceutical companies have paid doctors (in hotels, spas and what not) to prescribe their pipeline medications to patients. Then US government passed a law to make it illegal for pharmas to do that. It just spawned some 'medical education' company that is hired by the big pharams to do it on their behave.

Consumer capitalism is kinda like democracy. The consumer/voter need to be well informed/educated, and information needs to be 100% transparent.