We’ve covered Stickybits before, a startup launched at SXSW earlier this year with the intent of creating a platform for discussion of physical objects. Today’s announcement of Pepsi as an official partner is a peek into the future of physical objects that mirror the digital world, and vice-versa. A cousin to augmented reality, Stickybits provides a way for customers and brands to discuss real-world objects, by scanning barcodes and sharing stories, comments, photos, and video that have to do with those brands.

Pepsi’s sponsorship means that they will have the first message to users, similar to a paid search result, on any of their products that a customer might scan. While it may be a while until mass adoption of scanning objects takes place, similar behavior such as checking into places via Foursquare and competitors has already begun to seep into the mainstream. Barcodes are available for anything via Stickybits – the picture at the beginning of this post is one we’ve created for GolinHarris.

The internet has long strived to become a place that interacts and provides useful information about the real world, from RFID technology to Google Maps’ Street View. The object-oriented internet has taken a huge leap forward today in a platform that provides information about brands and products via mobile phones.

As new platforms that merge the digital space with reality emerge, so do both opportunities and threats to brand discussion. Although Pepsi has taken a bold leap forward by proactively joining the conversation about real-world objects tied to the digital space, it is easy to see that this kind of digital and physical interactions has the potential to be both positive and explosively negative for all kinds of brands. How long until health organizations are attaching photo media of the morbidly obese to brands such as Pepsi that contribute greatly to the obesity epidemic taking place in America?

While Stickybits may only be an iteration in an object-oriented internet, the message is clear: discussion of brands can and will take place everywhere a product exists in the real world.

This article originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.