The Russian cosmonauts, meanwhile, largely put themselves in a "grin and bear it" mode when it came to filming commercials and conducting the promotional photo shoots in orbit.
Despite outward appearances, both Musabayev and Baturin told SPACE.com that they thought the commercial work was tedious. What's more, the cosmonauts thought it took away from time that otherwise could be spent on more pressing scientific work at the station.
And while the two said the work was necessary given the Russian space agency's financial straits, both thought the work beneath the type of exercises professional cosmonauts would complete during better economic times.
"I did not like doing this advertising, although I understand that this is something that needs to be done," Musabayev said.
Baturin was even more blunt.
"Dennis Tito was really amazed to see what we were doing. We heard him make a comment about us to the U.S. [station] crew members: 'They're such serious people, but they are forced to do such nonsense,''' Baturin said, quoting the California financier. "We were deeply embarrassed to look like clowns in the eyes of the rest of the ISS crew."
Baturin may have company in the future. Some of the advertisers and marketers are urging NASA to reverse its stance on product endorsements by American astronauts aboard the international station. Proponents say that doing so might prompt more commercial companies to take a stake in scientific research that will be conducted on the outpost during the next two decades.
"NASA is entering a new era in which the agency has a continuously occupied space station and is trying to attract commercial business," said Gump. "And any company that would want to put its services or products on the space station would want to show people using those products and services. As it stands now, you can't show an astronaut in a commercial, which is a real serious roadblock to getting broader commercial involvement."
Even the spunky beef jerky manufacturer, however, understands the sticky situation that NASA now faces when it comes to commercial endeavors on the new space station.
NASA's current policy "is a hindrance, but I can also see it's like a point of order," Nemitz said. "If you didn't have [the policy], then you would have astronauts behaving like sports stars who promote shoes and cereal and all kinds of different items. Now maybe that's good, and maybe that's bad, but I can see why there's some reticence to allowing that to happen. I can understand the logic behind the prohibition."
After all, American taxpayers foot the bill for training NASA astronauts and launching them to the international station -- which by and large is the reason that corporations might seek product endorsements from them.
"So is it right to have the taxpayer fund these people up to their stardom, so to speak, rather than it being brought up as a commercial enterprise like the sports industry is?" Nemitz asked.
It's a question NASA might have a tough time answering.
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