Human caricature, musical Obama supporter and occasional hologram Will.i.am was named Director of Creative Innovation at Intel yesterday. The Santa Clara-based maker of semi-conductor chips that practically put the "silicon" in Silicon Valley, said in a press release:

In his unique role, will.i.am will collaborate with Intel on many creative and technology endeavors across the "compute continuum" that may include such devices as laptops, smart phones and tablets. Complimenting his visionary role as the front man for The Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am is also already working on music expressly for Intel.

We could debate the "visionary" status of songs like "Let's Get Retarded" all day, but more importantly the move by Intel follows Polaroid's nomination of Lady Gaga to creative director in a gross trend towards the next level of product placement and celebrity endorsement. It's Celebrity Placement, if you will. Rather than just sticking Intel devices in Black Eyed Peas videos (as they did with a Blackberry tablet in a recent video), it's only a matter of time before we start seeing Will.i.am's dopey hologram face popping up all over the place. The future!


[LATimes]