Is this what we can expect in D.C.?

Municipal budgets are shrinking, and cities and states across the country and coming up with any number of creative solutions to draw in additional revenue—including corporate ads and sponsorships.

Yesterday the New York Times reported on Baltimore’s proposed sale of ads on firetrucks as a means to save fire companies at risk of closure. (PETA already expressed interest.) But that’s not even the half of it:

Such marketing schemes have long been used by sports teams and some arts organizations. But now, straphangers in Philadelphia buy fare cards blazoned with ads for McDonald’s and ride the Broad Street Line to AT&T Station (formerly Pattison Station), where the turnstiles bear the company’s familiar blue and white globe.

KFC became a pioneer in this kind of unconventional ad placement earlier in the downturn, when it temporarily plastered its logo on manhole covers and fire hydrants in several cities in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee after paying to fill potholes and replace hydrants.

Pizza chains now advertise on some school buses, as a growing number of states consider allowing school districts to sell ads.

D.C. isn’t a stranger to leaner budgets, but we haven’t yet gotten to the point that a fried chicken purveyor is going to brand our fire hydrants. (Thankfully.) Last year, though, the D.C. Council allowed the Department of Parks and Recreation to start selling ads and sponsorship arrangements for local parks, pools and recreation centers. According to DPR spokesman John Stokes, no ads or sponsorships have yet been sold—but they soon will be. “There are no sponsorship agreements or ad purchases currently at DPR locations. We are finalizing the rules, polices and procedures for sponsorships and ad purchases,” he wrote in an email.

Metro sells ads—which have become more prominent over the years on trains and buses—but no station has yet been fully branded, nor have corporate logos appeared on SmarTrip or fare cards. (Remember those animated in-tunnel ads, though?) Capital Bikeshare has also been rumored to be looking for a title sponsor to help cover operating expenses. Even Nationals Park remains unbranded. (The stadium is city-owned, but naming rights are granted to the team’s owners.)

Of course, some of the most effective branding so far has been by the D.C. government itself. Mayor Vince Gray’s “One City” moniker is appearing on just about everything these days, after all.