[General Battuta]

Damn I somehow deleted my whole post. But, in gist - maximizing space for sellable advertising in your design is a core component of any modern web design, whether you're a social network or a music delivery system or even a free-to-play game. EA loves this stuff and has tried dynamic in-game ad space in the past (with Battlefield 2142, for instance) but this is the first time I've seen it implemented this way specifically.

[Sandwich]

And yet it's been around in various forms since 1978. So how exactly is this instance different than other in-game advertising, just by how "intensive" it is?

[General Battuta]

And yet it's been around in various forms since 1978.

Precisely my point above - I'm not sure where the 'as yet' comes from, since that frames this as a counterpoint. In-game advertising is a strategy that EA has always been interested in exploring.

I'm not  So how exactly is this instance different than other in-game advertising, just by how "intensive" it is?

This is explicitly not in-game advertising, so your question is mis-addressed; the advertising here is placed outside the product, as compared with the previous Nissan Leaf DLC with SimCity, where Nissan (presumably) purchased advertising space within the game in the form of charging stations. Rather, here, EA sells the distribution channel for the DLC to an advertising partner. They're keen on moving away from the pure packaged goods model of game sale, and they want to be able to monetize their platform in lots of ways.

[Sandwich]

Semantics. Regardless, looks like we both agree that this is somewhat of a new tangent in game marketing. The debate was that people were shocked at the exclusiveness of this deal; I, on the other hand, have grown accustomed to being excluded from deals, being someone who lives outside the USA/Canada.