When Second Life melds with Real Life

It's become pretty obvious to most residents of SL that there is a new surge of outside interest and now all sorts of businesses, musicians, etc want a piece of the action. I know there is some mixed feelings on these sorts of ventures in SL. Lots of people are threatened by it, and a recent episode of Second Cast mentioned that there seemed to be little point or interest to most of these new corporate ventures that are springing up all over the place. I didn't think about it too much until recently, when it seems to have hit me by storm.
I am still pretty new to SL, but I am the only one in my circle of friends and aquaintences that is involved in SL at all. Most of them had not heard of it until i mentioned it to them. So naturally, when the interest is sparked, I am the person everyone comes to for information. So recently a friend of mine that works at Cartoon Network comes to me to ask tons of questions about Second Life.. when i ask him why he wants to know all this, he tells me that CN is considering entering SL. For what, excactly.. i am not sure. I suppose a company such as Cartoon Network could do a whole lot of things in Second Life... but what's in it for them?
Which brings me to my next surprise. As i may have mentioned before, I work as a designer at a digital advertising company. Our company has recently merged with another larger ad agency and is all interested in doing a slew of far out things... so one of those things happens to be Second Life. My company wants to open up an island... and of course, as the resident (i.e. only) Second Life player, i have been asked to meet with the CEO to talk about prospects. But here is where i am confused.. what in the world could a digital advertising agency offer in SL? What is the purpose? I suppose i am a bit lost on what exactly they want to achieve by owning an island in SL, but its all very strange to me. My virtual world has suddenly become a lot less virtual and much more real... and i am not sure how i feel about it....