As if you haven't been exposed to enough advertising through other media everywhere else on the planet, several companies are hoping to tap into the vast amount of available space on high-definition DVDs to insert "branded interactive features". Progressive Direct, the nation's third largest auto insurer has teamed up with Universal Studios Home Entertainment to insert a feature displaying the running tally of automobile destruction into the recent release of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. An optional display in a small window keeps track of estimated repair costs as cars crash and run into each other during the course of the movie. Will these so-called branded interactive features (read: advertisements) catch on with other companies? Will consumers stand for something like this? Yeck.

(via CinemaTech)