Rent-A-Commercial Character?

Saw something today which made me think something is happening in TV advertising.

You know that great, great commercial for flufacts.com where the penguins all dance to the tune of "In The Summertime" with the lyrics changed for winter? I love that commerical.

So I'm picking up a few things in the supermarket tonight when I see a poster of the same penguin-you can tell it is the same artist-proclaiming March as "National Frozen Food Month".

I've seen actors do commercials as themselves. I believe I have even seen actors do commericials still in character from their TV series.

But until tonight, I have never seen a character in a commercial campaign do another commercial for a different product or company. It doesn't matter that it is an animated penguin-it is still a character which became famous for a commercial, and now it is being used in a different advertising campaign for an entirely different product.

Is this a trend? Will we see artists create characters-live or animated-not just for a set of commercials for one company, but to be rented out to the highest bidder?

Does anybody who with knowledge of the advertising or TV industries care to comment? Or has anybody else seen something like this before?

Are we going to see Tony The Tiger on for Viagra next month?