This one is most likely out of necessity. The Kool-Aid man needs contestants to compete against, and in this case, I guess other mascots make sense. All are from products that happen to be made by Altria (formerly Philip Morris), the company that makes Kool-Aid.
There are Kim Possible shapes in Crunch Berries right now, but cereal companies have been doing tie-ins with TV shows and movies for years- as have other companies. If this counts, maybe we should count all of the products (Diet Pepsi, Burger King, M&Ms, Cingular, etc.) that are using Star Wars characters in their ads, since in a way it is promoting both their product and the Star Wars movie(s), just as Cap’n Crunch promotes both his cereal and the Kim Possible TV show.
And speaking of Altria-owned companies, if you count the Cap’n’s Kim Possible tie-in, you can’t forget Post Pebbles, which have been for years been endorsed by Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. Not only that, Post is also having a Fairly OddParents tie-in in their ads as well- a threefer when combined with Pebbles!
Don’t know if this counts but whenever I see Tiger Woods in his car commercial (Buick I think) I always notice his Nike cap. I guess the car company shouldn’t care and Nike gets some free advertising. I wonder how much he makes for one of his commercials.