Moby whored out his album and benefitted with chart success from his action. It's not a new concept. In Japan, commercials have been the way to get new artists on tv/radio for decades. In America it is the exception to the craft. Sting tried to revive his career by selling some songs to Compaq Computers. He sold some of the same material to Jaguar; the articles about the Jaguar spots generated enough buzz for him to get radio airplay again.
Moby didn't get radio airplay and I think he still doesn't get radio airplay; he did get sales and articles written about him, though.
The biggest "hit" to come from a commercial prior to this recent "explosion" was "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach Is In)" by the T-Bones (from the 1960s). It was created as a jingle and drove the release of a cash-in album.
The guy who wrote many of the bubblegum hits of the late 1960s early 1970s also was a commercial jingle writer.
"Moby Manson" is still a media whore.
And Bob Seger is retired on seling "Like a Rock" to Chevy, and the Clash have sold Jags and Levi's and Led Zeppelin are on Cadillac commercial and the Doors sold their songs 30 years ago. It's only an "exception to the craft" (spoken like an idealist) because heretofore advertisers weren't as hot on going after rock tunes to sell to their target markets. Now that people who listened to Zep are Cadillacs demographic, Caddie's agency come to Zep with a hatful of money and Zep takes it. If Billy Joel chooses not to take that route, it's because he feels an appearance of integrity is more valuable to his "brand" than the money from the ads would be.
What about the Coke song, "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing?" I thought that was a jingle before it became a hit.