The next hour over on NBC, viewers were invited to buy the shirt off of Debra Messing's back. During a scene of "Will and Grace," Messing wore a Polo shirt that was offered up for the low, low price of $52 on Polo.com, 50 percent of which, it turns out, is owned by NBC.

A network spokesman said no money exchanged hands for the 10-second spot plugging the shirt, and that $15 from every sale would go to "support programs dedicated to raising cancer awareness."

Five days later, traffic on the Polo site had doubled and close to 3,000 T-shirts had been sold. A spokesperson said the venture raised more than $45,000 for cancer research -- never mind the other $110,000 for Polo/NBC.

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Product placement on TV and in the movies is nothing new. But the advent of TiVo and other services that make it easier for viewers to edit out commercials has forced advertisers and television producers to think of new ways to integrate products into television shows.

Television, in particular, has shown a willingness to keep its content malleable in exchange for ad dollars. In a story first reported by Salon, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and several major television networks negotiated deals to put anti-drug messages into television shows in exchange for advertising dollars from ONDCP.

An NBC spokesman said the Polo.com promo was not a sign of a new era of e-commerce tie-ins. But Jay May, president of the Los Angeles-based product placement agency Feature This disagrees.

"The future [of advertising] is already in place," May says. "It's going to be just like you saw [on "Will and Grace"], but it's not going to be at the end. It's going to be during the show." May says that digital television will allow for a seamless fusion of commerce and television. "Let's use 'Friends' as an example," he says. "Say there's a scene and Monica stands up goes to the fridge. A girl watching at home says, 'Wow, I love that sweater.'

"Your remote is going to be like [a] cursor. You'll point the arrow on the TV and click Monica's shirt. That will pause the program, and a little window will pop up and say, 'Available at Macy's for $129.95. Click here to order it now.' It's not in place now because people need digital TV to have it work."

May sees a similar trend coming on DVDs. "All of a sudden, a bar code is going to pop up letting you know something in that scene is for sale, and you'll be able to buy it right off the screen."

Preparations for interactive television are already well underway. Digital set-top boxes being distributed by some of the largest cable companies include a slot for smart cards to enable on-screen shopping.

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