Does Second Life Affect Real Life?

I just finished reading this article about how studies have shown that Second Life, an online virtual world affects the way people behave in real life. This is a really interesting concept. The one that I agreed could affect the way I act in real life was the exercising avatar. I think that if I had a little avatar on my screen that was exercising I would feel more motivated to go get some exercise as well. The problem with this type of influencing technology is when the avatars are used for marketing products. In online shopping when you create an avatar with the intent of making it look just like you the avatar ends up looking slightly better than you. They do this in order to influence people to buy their products because they look good on the slightly better looking online version of themselves. I personally do not think that people will be fooled by an avatar, but still, companies shouldn't try to manipulate them into buying products based on a false impression. Try it out at http://myvirtualmodel.com/cs/. Will you be fooled?